How severe is GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv?

GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv has a CVSS score of 9.8/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv?

GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv affects the following packages: vm2 (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv?

Update vm2 to version 3.9.15 or later. Run your dependency manager's update command and verify no transitive dependencies pin the vulnerable version. Use O3 Security's SCA scanner to confirm the fix is applied across your entire dependency tree.

Is GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 3 known exploit references for GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv, including 3 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv?

GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 75.0%, placing it in the 99th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

📦 npm

GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv

Q: Can O3 Security detect GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv in my codebase?

Yes. O3 Security's Impact-Aware SCA scanner identifies GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv across all affected ecosystems (npm), correlates it against your dependency graph, and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable in your application — eliminating false positives. You can scan your stack for GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv directly from the O3 platform.

CRITICAL

vm2 vulnerable to sandbox escape

Also known asCVE-2023-29017

Published

Apr 7, 2023

Updated

Nov 8, 2023

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

3 known

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

75.0%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk99th percentile0.00%

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.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

📦vm2

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects npm packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

vm2 was not properly handling host objects passed to Error.prepareStackTrace in case of unhandled async errors.

vm2 version: ~3.9.14
Node version: 18.15.0, 19.8.1, 17.9.1

Impact

A threat actor can bypass the sandbox protections to gain remote code execution rights on the host running the sandbox.

Patches

This vulnerability was patched in the release of version 3.9.15 of vm2.

Workarounds

None.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`vm2`	all versions	3.9.15

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

vm2 is a sandbox that can run untrusted code with whitelisted Node's bui…

github.comNVDApr 2023

vm2 is a sandbox that can run untrusted code with whitelisted Node's bui…

gist.github.comNVDApr 2023

vm2 is a sandbox that can run untrusted code with whitelisted Node's bui…

github.comGithubApr 2023

Frequently Asked Questions

vm2 was not properly handling host objects passed to `Error.prepareStackTrace` in case of unhandled async errors. - vm2 version: ~3.9.14 - Node version: 18.15.0, 19.8.1, 17.9.1 ### Impact A threat actor can bypass the sandbox protections to gain remote code execution rights on the host running the sandbox. ### Patches This vulnerability was patched in the release of version `3.9.15` of `vm2`. ### Workarounds None.

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv in your stack?

O3 detects GHSA-7jxr-cg7f-gpgv across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my stack How O3 SCA works

CVSS Score

9.8/10

CVSS v3 base score

Vector breakdown

AV:Attack Vector

Network

AC:Attack Complexity

Low

PR:Privileges Required

None

UI:User Interaction