CVE-2020-7781 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) OS Command Injection vulnerability in connection-tester. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for connection-tester — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Command injection in connection-tester
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2020-7781 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,987 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
connection-testernpmDescription
This affects the package connection-tester before 0.2.1. The injection point is located in line 15 in index.js. Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Command Injection
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | connection-tester | all versions | 0.2.1npm install connection-tester@0.2.1 |
Affected Products
connection-testerconnection-tester_projectResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for connection-tester, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update connection-tester to 0.2.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-7781 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-7781 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.