Description

Renovate versions 37.158.0 before 37.199.0 contain a command injection vulnerability in the helmv3 manager's registryAliases handling that allows attackers with commit access to execute arbitrary commands. Attackers can manipulate registryAliases keys with unquoted shell metacharacters to inject commands executed during helm repo add operations, gaining full access to Renovate's execution environment.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "8.8",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-19T14:17:16.240Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-19T14:17:16.240Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A command injection vulnerability exists in Renovate versions 37.158.0 before 37.199.0 within the helmv3 manager's handling of registryAliases.\nThe vulnerability allows threat actors with commit access to execute arbitrary commands within Renovate's execution environment, leading to full system compromise.\nThe affected product is Renovate, specifically the helmv3 manager component.\nThe risk implication is severe, as successful exploitation grants the attacker complete control over the host execution context, potentially exposing sensitive credentials and infrastructure access.\nAttacker capabilities require commit access to the target repository to manipulate configuration files containing registryAliases keys.\nExploitation is triggered automatically during normal execution when Renovate performs helm repo add operations leveraging the unquoted shell metacharacters provided in the configuration.",
  "technicalDetails": "The root cause of the vulnerability is improper input sanitization and handling of shell metacharacters within the registryAliases configuration keys processed by the helmv3 manager component.\nThe vulnerable component is the helmv3 manager, specifically the logic responsible for parsing and utilizing registryAliases during helm repo add invocations in Renovate versions 37.158.0 up to, but not including, 37.199.0.\nAuthentication and privilege requirements dictate that the attacker must possess write or commit access to the repository configuration to introduce malicious payloads into the target files.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, an attacker with commit access crafts a malicious configuration within the repository, injecting unquoted shell metacharacters into the registryAliases keys. Second, when the Renovate bot initializes the helmv3 manager and executes internal helm repo add commands, the unvalidated configuration values are passed directly to the underlying shell execution context without proper sanitization or argument separation. Third, the shell interprets the injected metacharacters, allowing arbitrary command execution with the privileges of the running Renovate process.\nThe payload behavior involves executing arbitrary system commands defined by the attacker during the repository update cycle, bypassing intended application constraints.\nThe post-exploitation impact includes full code execution within Renovate's execution environment, potential exposure of environment variables, API tokens, cloud credentials, and the ability to pivot to other integrated systems or compromise the integrity of the CI/CD pipeline."
}