CVE-2021-42740
9.8 · CRITICALOverview
CVE-2021-42740 is a critical-severity vulnerability affecting shell-quote_project shell-quote. It was published on October 21, 2021 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL).
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8, rated CRITICAL. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
Technical Description
The shell-quote package before 1.7.3 for Node.js allows command injection. An attacker can inject unescaped shell metacharacters through a regex designed to support Windows drive letters. If the output of this package is passed to a real shell as a quoted argument to a command with exec(), an attacker can inject arbitrary commands. This is because the Windows drive letter regex character class is {A-z] instead of the correct {A-Za-z]. Several shell metacharacters exist in the space between capital letter Z and lower case letter a, such as the backtick character.
Remediation
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from shell-quote_project. Update shell-quote to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| shell-quote_project | shell-quote | >= 0, < 1.7.3 | Affected |
References
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2021-42740?
CVE-2021-42740 is a critical-severity vulnerability affecting shell-quote_project shell-quote. It was published on October 21, 2021 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL).
How severe is CVE-2021-42740?
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8, rated CRITICAL. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
How do I fix or remediate CVE-2021-42740?
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from shell-quote_project. Update shell-quote to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2021-42740?
CyberStrike's AI-powered security agents can automatically detect CVE-2021-42740 across your infrastructure using autonomous pentesting, DAST scanning, and HackBrowser. The platform continuously monitors for known vulnerabilities and provides actionable remediation guidance prioritized by real-world exploitability.
How CyberStrike Helps
AI agents map your attack surface to find vulnerabilities like this one.
Automated penetration testing that runs continuously, not just quarterly.
AI-driven PR review catches vulnerable dependencies before they ship.
Browser-based exploitation validates findings with real proof-of-concept.
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