Filesystem permission bypass via overwritten path normalizers
Published Feb 20, 2024 · Updated Apr 30, 2025
Path traversal in Node.js 20 before 20.11.1 and 21 before 21.6.2 allows local users to bypass filesystem permissions. Overwritable built-in path-normalization utilities let user-defined implementations feed unsanitized traversal sequences to node:fs permission checks. Exploitation requires code execution in a process started with the experimental permission model and permits filesystem reads or writes outside configured paths.
Summary
What happened
Path traversal in Node.js 20 before 20.11.1 and 21 before 21.6.2 allows local users to bypass filesystem permissions. Overwritable built-in path-normalization utilities let user-defined implementations feed unsanitized traversal sequences to node:fs permission checks. Exploitation requires code execution in a process started with the experimental permission model and permits filesystem reads or writes outside configured paths.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-21891
- Published
- Feb 20, 2024
- Updated
- Apr 30, 2025
- Vendor
- Node.js
- Product
- Node.js
- Classifications
- CWE-22, T1005
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Feb 20, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Apr 30, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=10.0 <10.*
- Affected versionversion=11.0 <11.*
- Affected versionversion=12.0 <12.*
- Affected versionversion=13.0 <13.*
- Affected versionversion=14.0 <14.*
- Affected versionversion=15.0 <15.*
- Affected versionversion=16.0 <16.*
- Affected versionversion=17.0 <17.*
- Affected versionversion=19.0 <19.*
- Affected versionversion=20.0 <20.11.1
- Affected versionversion=21.0 <21.6.2
- Affected versionversion=4.0 <4.*
- Affected versionversion=5.0 <5.*
- Affected versionversion=6.0 <6.*
- Affected versionversion=7.0 <7.*
- Affected versionversion=8.0 <8.*
- Affected versionversion=9.0 <9.*
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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