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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2022-31180 json

Insufficient escaping of whitespace in shescape

published 2022-07-15 4 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-44vr-rwwj-p88h , EUVD-2022-6224

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.0%
EPSS 2.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 80%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Shescape is a simple shell escape package for JavaScript. Affected versions were found to have insufficient escaping of white space when interpolating output. This issue only impacts users that use the `escape` or `escapeAll` functions with the `interpolation` option set to `true`. The result is that if an attacker is able to include whitespace in their input they can: 1. Invoke shell-specific behaviour through shell-specific special characters inserted directly after whitespace. 2. Invoke shell-specific behaviour through shell-specific special characters inserted or appearing after line terminating characters. 3. Invoke arbitrary commands by inserting a line feed character. 4. Invoke arbitrary commands by inserting a carriage return character. Behaviour number 1 has been patched in [v1.5.7] which you can upgrade to now. No further changes are required. Behaviour number 2, 3, and 4 have been patched in [v1.5.8] which you can upgrade to now. No further changes are required. The best workaround is to avoid having to use the `interpolation: true` option - in most cases using an alternative is possible, see [the recipes](https://github.com/ericcornelissen/shescape#recipes) for recommendations. Alternatively, users may strip all whitespace from user input. Note that this is error prone, for example: for PowerShell this requires stripping `'\u0085'` which is not included in JavaScript's definition of `\s` for Regular Expressions.

Patch / fix

  • npm shescape 1.5.8
  • shescape_project shescape 1.5.8

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
total
Assessed
18 mo ago

Exploit prediction

1.99% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 80% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/ericcornelissen/shescape/security/advisories/GHSA-44vr-rwwj-p88h referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
GitHub 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
npm shescape
>=1.4.0, <1.5.8
1.5.8

Affected products

  • ericcornelissen shescape

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-74 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.