CVE-2021-44906 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-1321 vulnerability in minimist. 4 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for minimist — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Prototype Pollution in minimist
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2021-44906 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,567 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
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.
minimistnpmDescription
Minimist prior to 1.2.6 and 0.2.4 is vulnerable to Prototype Pollution via file index.js, function setKey() (lines 69-95).
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | minimist | ≥ 1.0.0&&< 1.2.6 | 1.2.6npm install minimist@1.2.6 |
| 📦npm | minimist | all versions | 0.2.4npm install minimist@0.2.4 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Minimist <=1.2.5 is vulnerable to Prototype Pollution via file index.js,…
Minimist <=1.2.5 is vulnerable to Prototype Pollution via file index.js,…
Minimist <=1.2.5 is vulnerable to Prototype Pollution via file index.js,…
Minimist <=1.2.5 is vulnerable to Prototype Pollution via file index.js,…
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for minimist, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update minimist to 1.2.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-44906 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2021-44906 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2021-44906. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
As minimist is an argument parsing module for nodejs, exploitation of this vulnerability requires an attacker to influence which arguments are passed to nodejs when running a script. Red Hat products and services are designed in such a way that gaining this ability is not trivial. Additionally, the impact is limited…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| OpenShift Service Mesh 2.1 | openshift-service-mesh/kiali-rhel8:1.36.9-1 | RHSA-2022:1739 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | nodejs:16-8070020221207164159.bd1311ed | RHSA-2022:9073 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | nodejs:14-8070020221212161539.bd1311ed | RHSA-2023:0050 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Extended Update Support | nodejs:14-8040020230306170312.522a0ee4 | RHSA-2023:1533 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Extended Update Support | nodejs:14-8060020230306170237.ad008a3a | RHSA-2023:1742 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | nodejs-1:16.18.1-3.el9_1 | RHSA-2023:0321 |
| Red Hat Fuse 7.11.1 | io.hawt-hawtio-integration | RHSA-2022:8652 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform | org.jboss.hal/hal-console:3.3.13.Final-redhat-00001 | RHSA-2022:5928 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-44906 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2021-44906 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.