pnpm 11.0.0 before 11.11.0 Environment Variable Exfiltration via Proxy Settings

pnpm versions 11.0.0 before 11.11.0 and 10.7.0 before 10.34.5 expand ${VAR} environment-variable placeholders in the httpProxy, httpsProxy, and noProxy settings read from a project's pnpm-workspace.yaml. Because the manifest is repository-controlled and the proxy keys were omitted from the request-destination key set that otherwise suppresses placeholder expansion for untrusted manifests (as already done for registry, pnprServer, registries and namedRegistries), an attacker who controls a repository's pnpm-workspace.yaml can cause a victim who clones the repository and runs a pnpm command (e.g. pnpm install) to expand environment secrets such as NPM_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN into a proxy hostname or userinfo and route install traffic — and the corresponding DNS lookups — through an attacker-controlled host. The exfiltration occurs during configuration loading, before any lifecycle script executes. Fixed in pnpm 11.11.0 and 10.34.5.

The code transmits data to another actor, but a portion of the data includes sensitive information that should not be accessible to that actor.

An attacker operating through a network path may attempt exploitation when the stated preconditions are met. If successful, the issue may cause the confidentiality, integrity or availability impact described by the vendor.