GitHub Advisoryadvisory · npm
GHSA-w4hw-qcx7-56pr Shescape: Shell injection via unescaped parentheses on Windows with CMD
CRITICAL
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-73414
- Ecosystem
- npm
- Packages
- shescape
- Severity
- Critical
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-150, CWE-78
- Reviewed
- 2026-07-24
Affected packages
• npm shescape: < 2.1.14 → fixed in 2.1.14
• npm shescape: >= 3.0.0, < 3.0.1 → fixed in 3.0.1
Description
Impact
This impacts users of Shescape on Windows that explicitly configure `shell` to CMD, or `true` with the default shell being CMD, using the `escape` and `escapeAll` APIs.
An attacker may be able to achieve shell injection depending on the original command.
```javascript
import * as cp from "node:child_process";
import { Shescape } from "shescape";
// 1. Prerequisites
const options = {
shell: "cmd.exe",
// Or
shell: true, // Only if the default shell is CMD
};
// 2. Payload
const payload = "x) else if a==a (echo y";
// 3. Usage
const shescape = new Shescape(options);
let escapedPayload;
escapedPayload = shescape.escape(payload);
// Or
escapedPayload = shescape.escapeAll([payload]);
// And (example)
const result = cp.execSync(`if defined FALSY (echo ${escapedPayload})`, options);
// 4. Impact
console.log(result.toString());
// Outputs "y" instead of ""
```
Patches
This bug has been patched in [v2.1.14] and [v3.0.1] which you can upgrade to now.
If you are already using v3 of Shescape, no further changes are required. If you are using v2 of Shescape is recommended to upgrade as this version reaches end-of-life status on 2026-09-28, follow the [migration guide] to upgrade to v3.
No patches will be released for version of Shescape lower than v2.0.0.
Workarounds
Alternatively, users of Shescape can remove all instances of `(` and `)` from untrusted inputs.
For more information
• Comment on Pull Request [#2651] for v2 and [#2649] for v3
• Comment on commit [b4b34c3] for v2 and [43d70b5] for v3
• Open an issue at (New issue > Question)
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-73414 Shescape is a simple shell escape library for JavaScript. vulnerability
References
- https://github.com/ericcornelissen/shescape/security/advisories/GHSA-w4hw-qcx7-56pr web
- https://github.com/ericcornelissen/shescape/pull/2649 web
- https://github.com/ericcornelissen/shescape/pull/2651 web
- https://github.com/ericcornelissen/shescape/commit/43d70b59d09bbe5c3fd02ef08b3a123e977ed9de web
- https://github.com/ericcornelissen/shescape/commit/b4b34c394e7f9da2775bb75381066b9a228c425f web
- https://github.com/ericcornelissen/shescape package
- https://github.com/ericcornelissen/shescape/blob/dea8893a5877893d8d4923dbf253080e08899e6d/docs/migration.md web
- https://github.com/ericcornelissen/shescape/releases/tag/v2.1.14 web
- https://github.com/ericcornelissen/shescape/releases/tag/v3.0.1 web