Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-84961 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-84961 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-84961?
- High severity, with a CVSS score of 7.4, published 4 September 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- undici (npm) SEMVER:introduced=7.24.1,fixed=7.29.1.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-84961?
- Yes. undici (npm): upgrade to 7.29.1 or later. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2026-84961 attacked?
- It is attacked over the network, in a software library.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-84961?
- Check whether you run undici (npm) at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
How to fix
- undici (npm): upgrade to 7.29.1 or later
npm install undici@7.29.1
Technical details
undici's BalancedPool constructor performs a JSON-based deep clone (JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(options))) of its entire options object before forwarding it to upstream Pool instances. Since JSON cannot serialize functions, function-valued options like custom connect or tls callbacks are silently dropped during this cloning process. An attacker in a network position to intercept connections could exploit this to serve a certificate that fails custom validation but passes Node's default hostname and certificate chain checks, achieving a man-in-the-middle attack. The vulnerability affects versions 7.24.1 to 7.29.0 and 8.0.0 to 8.10.1. Other dispatchers (Client, Pool, Agent, RoundRobinPool) extract connect/tls options before cloning and are not affected. Patches are available in versions 7.29.1 and 8.10.2.
Affected products
- OpenJS Foundation undici 7.24.1 to 7.29.0, 8.0.0 to 8.10.1
Identifiers
- CVE-2026-84961
- GHSA-w293-vg96-wgc3
Timeline
- 2026-09-04: disclosed
- 2026-09-04: patched: Patches available in versions 7.29.1 and 8.10.2