{
  "affected": [
    {
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "npm",
        "name": "renovate"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "42.68.1"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "42.96.3"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "npm",
        "name": "renovate"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "43.0.0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "43.4.4"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-269"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2026-02-13T20:53:58Z",
    "nvd_published_at": null,
    "severity": "MODERATE"
  },
  "details": "When Renovate spawns child processes, their access to environment variables is filtered to an allowlist, to prevent unauthorized access to privileged credentials that the Renovate process has access to.\n\nSince [42.68.1](https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/releases/tag/42.68.1) (2025-12-30), this filtering had been **inadvertently removed**, and so any child processes spawned from these versions will have had access to any environment variables that Renovate has access to.\n\nThis could lead to [insider attackers](https://docs.renovatebot.com/security-and-permissions/#execution-of-code-insider-attack) and [outside attackers](https://docs.renovatebot.com/security-and-permissions/#execution-of-code-outsider-attack) being able to exflitrate secrets from the Renovate deployment.\n\nIt is recommended to rotate (+ revoke) any credentials that Renovate has access to, in case any spawned child processes have attempted to exfiltrate any secrets.\n\n## Impact\n\nChild processes spawned by Renovate (i.e. `npm install`, anything defined in [`postUpgradeTasks`](https://docs.renovatebot.com/configuration-options/#postupgradetasks) or [`postUpdateOptions`](https://docs.renovatebot.com/configuration-options/#postupdateoptions)) will have full access to the environment variables that the Renovate process has. \n\nThis could lead to [insider attackers](https://docs.renovatebot.com/security-and-permissions/#execution-of-code-insider-attack) and [outside attackers](https://docs.renovatebot.com/security-and-permissions/#execution-of-code-outsider-attack) being able to exflitrate secrets from the Renovate deployment.\n\n## Patches\n\nThis is patched in [42.96.3](https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/releases/tag/42.96.3) and [43.4.4](https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/releases/tag/43.4.4).\n\n## Workarounds\n\nThere are no workarounds, other than upgrading your Renovate version.\n\n## Why did this happen?\n\nAs part of work towards https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/security/advisories/GHSA-pfq2-hh62-7m96, one of the [preparatory changes](https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/pull/40212) we made was moving to [`execa`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/execa).\n\nOne of the default behaviours of `execa` is to [extend the process\u0027 environment variables with any new ones](https://github.com/sindresorhus/execa/tree/v8.0.1?tab=readme-ov-file#extendenv), rather than override them.\n\nThis was missed in code review, which meant that since this version, the full environment variables have been provided to any child processes spawned with `execa` by Renovate.\n\nThis was discovered as part of an unrelated change.",
  "id": "GHSA-8wc6-vgrq-x6cf",
  "modified": "2026-02-13T20:53:58Z",
  "published": "2026-02-13T20:53:58Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/security/advisories/GHSA-8wc6-vgrq-x6cf"
    },
    {
      "type": "PACKAGE",
      "url": "https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/releases/tag/42.96.3"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/releases/tag/43.4.4"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "Child processes spawned by Renovate incorrectly have full access to environment variables"
}