GHSA-8wc6-vgrq-x6cf: Renovate Child Processes Spawned By Renovate Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-8wc6-vgrq-x6cf",
  "modified" : "2026-02-13T20:53:58Z",
  "published" : "2026-02-13T20:53:58Z",
  "aliases" : [ ],
  "summary" : "Child processes spawned by Renovate incorrectly have full access to environment variables",
  "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' 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.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "renovate"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "42.68.1"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "42.96.3"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "renovate"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "43.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "43.4.4"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "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"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-269" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-02-13T20:53:58Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}