CVE-2021-23355 — ps-kill
CRITICALCVE-2021-23355 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) OS Command Injection vulnerability in ps-kill. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Command Injection in ps-kill
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2021-23355 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,738 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.
ps-killnpmDescription
This affects all versions of package ps-kill. If (attacker-controlled) user input is given to the kill function, it is possible for an attacker to execute arbitrary commands. This is due to use of the child_process exec function without input sanitization in the index.js file.
PoC (provided by reporter):
var ps_kill = require('ps-kill');
ps_kill.kill('$(touch success)', function() {});
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | ps-kill | all versions | No fix |
Affected Products
ps-killps-kill_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 ps-kill, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of ps-kill has shipped for CVE-2021-23355 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
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-2021-23355 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.