A vulnerability has been identified in Node.js, specifically affecting the handling of drive names in the Windows environment. Certain Node.js functions do not treat drive names as special on Windows. As a result, although Node.js assumes a relative path, it actually refers to the root directory. On Windows, a path that does not start with the file separator is treated as relative to the current directory. This vulnerability affects Windows users of `path.join` API.
The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.