Exposure of home directory through shescape on Unix with Bash
Impact
The issue allows for exposure of the home directory on Unix systems when using Bash with the escape or escapeAll functions from the shescape API with the interpolation option set to true. Other tested shells, Dash and Zsh, are not affected.
const cp = require("child_process");
const shescape = require("shescape");
const payload = "home_directory=~";
const options = { interpolation: true };
console.log(cp.execSync(`echo ${shescape.escape(payload, options)}`));
// home_directory=/home/userDepending on how the output of shescape is used, directory traversal may be possible in the application using shescape.
Patches
The issue was patched in v1.5.1.
Workarounds
Manually escape all instances of the tilde character (~) using arg.replace(/~/g, "\\~").
References
See GitHub issue https://github.com/ericcornelissen/shescape/issues/169.
Affected software
Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.
| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| npm package | shescape | >= 1.4.0, < 1.5.1 | 1.5.1 |
References
- CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-200, CWE-78- Platform
- npm
- Package
shescape- Disclosed
- 03.03.2022
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 10:22
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-446w-rrm4-r47f - CC BY 4.0
Vulnerability history: shescape
All published vulnerabilities of this package (npm package), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.
- Total entries
- 13
- First → latest
- 03.2021 07.2026
- Without a fix
- 0
- Exploited in attacks
- 0
Severity breakdown
- Critical 2
- High 5
- Medium 4
- Low 2
Disclosures per year
- 2021: 1
- 2022: 4
- 2023: 2
- 2024: 0
- 2025: 1
- 2026: 5
-
Exposure of home directory through shescape on Unix with Bash this entry
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