CVE-2026-100721 CRITICAL

CVE-2026-100721: vm2 before 3.12.2 Authorization Bypass via Custom Resolver

Vendor Patriksimek
Product vm2
Weakness CWE-863 · Incorrect authorization
Published September 27, 2026
Last update September 27, 2026

CVSS base score

9.5/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction None
Confidentiality —
Integrity —

CVSS vector

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H

What the vulnerability does

01Description

vm2 before 3.12.2 contains an authorization bypass in the NodeVM external-module resolver. When an embedder configures `require.external` with a custom resolver (and `context: 'host'`), `LegacyResolver.customResolve` in lib/resolver-compat.js records the resolved module directory in `this.externals` as `new RegExp('^' + escapeRegExp(resolvedPath))`, without requiring a path separator or end-of-string boundary. Untrusted guest code can therefore require the allowlisted module (e.g. `foo`) and then require the absolute path of a non-allowlisted sibling whose path merely shares the resolved prefix (e.g. `.../node_modules/foo2/index.js`); the sibling passes `isPathAllowedForModule` and is loaded through `hostRequire`, so its top-level code runs in the host process before the exports are wrapped with `vm.readonly`, resulting in a sandbox escape and arbitrary code execution in the host context.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

September 27, 2026 CVE published

Related vulnerabilities

04Related CVE