Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-55130

Nodejs Node.Js 20.0.0 – 20.20.0

Published
20 January 2026
Modified
15 July 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
EPSS Score 0.016 74th percentile
Risk Priority 70 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-55130 is a critical-severity Authentication Bypass by Alternate Name (CWE-289) vulnerability in Nodejs Node.Js. Its CVSS base score is 9.1 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 26% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-16 (Security and Privacy Attributes) and IA-2 (Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users)) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2025-55130 is a vulnerability in Node.js's Permissions model that enables attackers to bypass the `--allow-fs-read` and `--allow-fs-write` restrictions through crafted relative symlink paths. By chaining directories and symlinks, a script permitted access only to the current directory can escape its allowed path, read sensitive files elsewhere, and perform arbitrary file read/write operations. This flaw undermines the isolation guarantees of the permission model and can lead to system compromise. It affects users of the permission model in Node.js versions v20, v22, v24, and v25, with a CVSS score of 9.1 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N) and is associated with CWE-289.

The vulnerability can be exploited by any unauthenticated attacker (PR:N) over the network (AV:N) with low complexity (AC:L), provided they can execute a malicious Node.js script in an environment using the permission model. Exploitation grants high-impact confidentiality (C:H) and integrity (I:H) violations through arbitrary file read/write capabilities outside the intended scope, though it has no direct availability impact (A:N). Successful attacks break expected sandboxing, potentially allowing access to sensitive system files and full compromise of the host.

For mitigation details, refer to the Node.js security advisory at https://nodejs.org/en/blog/vulnerability/december-2025-security-releases, which covers patches and remediation steps for affected versions.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access ControlA07:2025 Authentication Failures

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A flaw in Node.js’s Permissions model allows attackers to bypass `--allow-fs-read` and `--allow-fs-write` restrictions using crafted relative symlink paths. By chaining directories and symlinks, a script granted access only to the current directory can escape the allowed path and read…

more

sensitive files. This breaks the expected isolation guarantees and enables arbitrary file read/write, leading to potential system compromise. This vulnerability affects users of the permission model on Node.js v20, v22, v24, and v25.

CWE(s)
CWE-289CWE-281

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1005 Data from Local System Collection
Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.
attack.mitre.org →
T1039 Data from Network Shared Drive Collection
Adversaries may search network shares on computers they have compromised to find files of interest.
attack.mitre.org →
T1080 Taint Shared Content Lateral Movement
attack.mitre.org →
T1552 Unsecured Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may search compromised systems to find and obtain insecurely stored credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
T1555 Credentials from Password Stores Credential Access
Adversaries may search for common password storage locations to obtain user credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-48618Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2026-48615Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2024-21891Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2023-32558Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2023-39331Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2024-21896Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2023-32002Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2023-32005Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2023-30586Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2023-30581Same product: Nodejs Node.Js

Affected Assets

nodejs
node.js
20.0.0 — 20.20.0 · 22.0.0 — 22.22.0 · 24.0.0 — 24.13.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 16 hardening rules · 6 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V8.3.3
  • V10.3.2
  • V6.4.3

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

IA-2 Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users) good match

Requiring unique identification and authentication of users forces the system to resolve all name variants to a single identity before access is granted.

AC-16 Security and Privacy Attributes good match

Associating and preserving security attributes (including permissions) with objects reduces the chance they are lost or weakened on copy/restore/share.

IA-4 Identifier Management good match

Identifier management directly requires authorization and uniqueness checks that eliminate alternate-name aliases for the same actor or resource.

AC-3 Access Enforcement partial match

Enforcing approved authorizations for access directly stops objects from receiving or retaining less-restrictive permissions than intended.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

Least-privilege assignments limit the blast radius when permissions are incorrectly relaxed during copy/restore/share operations.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.AA-03 mostly match
prevents

Strong authentication mechanisms directly prevent name-based bypass when they enforce canonical name checks.

PR.AA-05 mostly match
prevents

Enforcing least-privilege permission policies and reviews directly prevents incorrect permission propagation on copy/restore/share operations.

PR.AA-01 partial match
prevents

Proper identity management reduces alternate-name collisions but does not guarantee canonicalization inside the auth decision.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.5.15 Access control partial match
prevents

Access-control policy can mandate canonical-name checks but does not prescribe the technical implementation.

A.5.16 Identity management partial match
prevents

Identity-management processes can require unique, canonical identifiers, reducing alternate-name bypass risk.

A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
degrades

Proper management of authentication credentials can include rules against duplicate or alias identities.

A.5.18 Access rights partial match
prevents

Access-rights provisioning can enforce canonical-name validation when granting rights.

A.8.2 Privileged access rights partial match
degrades

Privileged-access management includes rules for maintaining correct permissions on copied or restored data.

A.8.3 Information access restriction partial match
prevents

Information-access-restriction mechanisms can implement canonical-name checks to prevent bypass.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
  • V-248538 OL 8 operating systems booted with United Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) must have a unique name for the grub superusers account when booting into single-user mode and maintenance. prevents CWE-289
RHEL 7 (1 rule)
  • V-244558 Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems version 7.2 or newer booted with United Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) must have a unique name for the grub superusers account when booting into single-user mode and maintenance. prevents CWE-289
Windows Server 2019 (1 rule)
  • V-205743 Windows Server 2019 organization created Active Directory Organizational Unit (OU) objects must have proper access control permissions. prevents CWE-281
Windows Server 2022 (2 rules)
  • V-254393 Windows Server 2022 Active Directory Group Policy objects must have proper access control permissions. prevents CWE-281
  • V-254395 Windows Server 2022 organization created Active Directory Organizational Unit (OU) objects must have proper access control permissions. prevents CWE-281

References