CVE-2022-24725

Exposure of home directory through shescape on Unix with Bash

Workarounds

Manually escape all instances of the tilde character (~) using arg.replace(/~/g, "\\~").

References

See GitHub issue https://github.com/ericcornelissen/shescape/issues/169.

The issue allows for exposure of the home directory on Unix systems when using Bash with the escape or escapeAll functions from the shescape API with the interpolation option set to true. Other tested shells, Dash and Zsh, are not affected.

const cp = require("child_process");
const shescape = require("shescape");

const payload = "home_directory=~";
const options = { interpolation: true };
console.log(cp.execSync(`echo ${shescape.escape(payload, options)}`));
// home_directory=/home/user

Depending on how the output of shescape is used, directory traversal may be possible in the application using shescape.

Untrusted input reaches a shell command, allowing arbitrary commands to run on the host. Typical impact: code execution in the application's environment.

CVE-2022-24725 has a CVSS score of 5.5 (Medium). The vector is requires local access, low privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (1.5.1); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

Already deployed Kodem?

The issue was patched in v1.5.1.

1. What is CVE-2022-24725? CVE-2022-24725 is a medium-severity OS command injection vulnerability in shescape (npm), affecting versions >= 1.4.0, < 1.5.1. It is fixed in 1.5.1. Untrusted input reaches a shell command, allowing arbitrary commands to run on the host.
2. How severe is CVE-2022-24725? CVE-2022-24725 has a CVSS score of 5.5 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
3. Which versions of shescape are affected by CVE-2022-24725? shescape (npm) versions >= 1.4.0, < 1.5.1 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2022-24725? Yes. CVE-2022-24725 is fixed in 1.5.1. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2022-24725 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2022-24725 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
6. What actually determines whether CVE-2022-24725 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
7. How do I fix CVE-2022-24725? Upgrade shescape to 1.5.1 or later.

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