CVE-2026-24118 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Code Injection vulnerability in vm2. A fix is available for vm2 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
VM2 Sandbox Breakout Through __lookupGetter__
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-24118.
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-2026-24118 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 378,156 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.
vm2npmDescription
Summary
VM2 suffers from a sandbox breakout vulnerability. This allows attackers to write code which can escape from the VM2 sandbox and execute arbitrary commands on the host system.
Details
The __lookupGetter__ method allows to read the getter of an object. It is special in VM2 since it will switch between the host and sandbox version of the method when passed to the other context.
This allows to access getters on an object in the host context if the method is called from the host context which can be achieved by using the host apply method which can be accessed through Buffer.apply.
Afterwards, this function can be used to call the host version of __lookupGetter__ with Buffer and __proto__ resulting in the prototype lookup method from the host context.
With this method the hosts Function.prototype object can be retrieved and the host Function acquired through the constructor property which allows to create and run code in the host context.
This issue was attempted to be fixed with https://github.com/patriksimek/vm2/blob/4b009c2d4b1131c01810c1205e641d614c322a29/lib/bridge.js#L427. However, this can be circumvented by using Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor to get the constructor property.
PoC
The following code demonstrates this issue by acquiring the host process object and executing touch pwned.
const {VM} = require("vm2");
const vm = new VM();
vm.run(`
const g = ({}).__lookupGetter__;
const a = Buffer.apply;
const p = a.apply(g, [Buffer, ['__proto__']]);
Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(p.call(a),'constructor').value('return process')().mainModule.require('child_process').execSync('touch pwned');
`);
Impact
Attackers can perform Remote Code Execution under the assumption that arbitrary code can be executed inside the context of a vm2 sandbox.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | vm2 | all versions | 3.11.0npm install vm2@3.11.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for vm2, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update vm2 to 3.11.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-24118 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-2026-24118 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-24118. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-24118 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-24118 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.