Is This vulnerability exploited in the wild?

No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of This vulnerability being exploited in the wild.

How severe is This vulnerability?

Critical severity, with a CVSS score of 9.9, published 17 September 2026.

Which products and versions are affected?

vm2 (npm) <= 3.11.6; Prisma Vm2 <= 3.11.6.

Is there a fix for This vulnerability?

A patch was published on 2026-08-24: Fixed in vm2 3.11.7 Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.

How is This vulnerability attacked?

It is attacked over the network, in a software library.

Check whether you run vm2 (npm) or Prisma Vm2 at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

vm2 NodeVM builtin deny-list bypass via node-prefixed specifiers

Q: Which products and versions are affected?

vm2 (npm) <= 3.11.6; Prisma Vm2 <= 3.11.6.

Q: Is there a fix for This vulnerability?

A patch was published on 2026-08-24: Fixed in vm2 3.11.7 Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.

Q: How is This vulnerability attacked?

It is attacked over the network, in a software library.

Q: Am I affected?

Check whether you run vm2 (npm) or Prisma Vm2 at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

Severity: critical · CVSS 9.9 · Published 2026-09-17

vm2 is a library that runs untrusted JavaScript code in a sandboxed environment. When administrators configure deny policies using node:-prefixed module names (like '-node:child_process'), the sandbox incorrectly permits access to restricted modules. An attacker can exploit this to gain host command-execution capability by accessing process-spawning APIs, completely defeating the sandbox security boundary.

Technologies: vm2 (npm). Vendors: npm.

Quick answers

Is This vulnerability exploited in the wild?: No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of This vulnerability being exploited in the wild.
How severe is This vulnerability?: Critical severity, with a CVSS score of 9.9, published 17 September 2026.
Which products and versions are affected?: vm2 (npm) <= 3.11.6; Prisma Vm2 <= 3.11.6.
Is there a fix for This vulnerability?: A patch was published on 2026-08-24: Fixed in vm2 3.11.7 Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
How is This vulnerability attacked?: It is attacked over the network, in a software library.
Am I affected?: Check whether you run vm2 (npm) or Prisma Vm2 at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

Technical details

vm2's NodeVM strips the 'node:' prefix during require() resolution but fails to normalize this prefix when checking negative (deny) entries in wildcard builtin policies, performing exact string matching instead. An attacker can require('child_process') or require('node:child_process') to obtain the host module despite a policy denying '-node:child_process', gaining access to execSync, spawn, and other process APIs. The vulnerability was fixed in vm2 3.11.7.

Affected products

Prisma vm2 <= 3.11.6

Timeline

2026-08-24: disclosed: Original advisory GHSA-8686-vhfx-7r3j published
2026-08-24: patched: Fixed in vm2 3.11.7
2026-09-17: advisory: Duplicate advisory GHSA-28q4-xrqh-9479 published
2026-10-01: other: Duplicate advisory withdrawn

References

https://github.com/patriksimek/vm2/security/advisories/GHSA-8686-vhfx-7r3j

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