Nvm: OS Command Injection (CVE-2026-118905)
Published Last modified Sources: CVE.org
What is affected, what to do
Node Version Manager (nvm) is a POSIX-compliant shell function for managing multiple node.js versions. In versions 0.31.2 through 0.40.5, `nvm_ls` filters installed versions with a sed program that embeds the requested version pattern in a `\#...#` address, escaping `.` (and, since 0.40.4, `#`) but not backslash.
Update Nvm to version 0.40.6.
- Affected
- Nvm
lt 0.31.2..0.40.6
- Nvm
- Fixed in
- Nvm
0.40.6
- Nvm
Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability
Metrics
7.1
Priority
XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.
Source: Vendor (CNA), CVSS v4
7.0
CVSS v3
Severity High on the scale from 0 to 10.
Source: CVE.org
0.1 %
EPSS score
Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 3.2
Show all metrics
- Severity
- High
Priority (0–325)
The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?
Read in glossary- 65.58 Methodology
Exploit maturity
An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.
Read in glossary- no public PoC known
XIEM Effective CVSS
XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.
Read in glossary- 7.1 Methodology
CVSS v3
CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.
Read in glossary- 7.0
CVSS v4
CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.
Read in glossary- 7.1
EPSS score
The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.
Read in glossary- 0.1 %
- Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
EPSS percentile
The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.
Read in glossary- 3.2
- Low — this CVE sits in the lower 10% of all CVEs scored today.
KEV status
The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.
Read in glossary- —
- Published
CWE
CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.
Read in glossary- CWE-78, CWE-94
Detection rules
No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.
Classification under NIS2 and CRA
Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.
NIS2
NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.
Read in glossary- High technical severity: assess and remediate the vulnerability in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2 and document the decision.
CRA
The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.
Read in glossary- From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
ISO/IEC 27001
ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.
Read in glossary- Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.
Description
Node Version Manager (nvm) is a POSIX-compliant shell function for managing multiple node.js versions. In versions 0.31.2 through 0.40.5, `nvm_ls` filters installed versions with a sed program that embeds the requested version pattern in a `\#...#` address, escaping `.` (and, since 0.40.4, `#`) but not backslash. A version string containing `#` (or `\#`) therefore closes the address early, and the rest of it is parsed as sed commands: with GNU sed, the `e` command runs a shell command as the user; with BSD sed, the `w` and `r` commands write and read files. This is reachable whenever an attacker-influenced version string is passed to `nvm use`, `nvm which`, `nvm ls`, `nvm version`, `nvm run`, or `nvm exec`, or to `nvm-exec` via `NODE_VERSION`, and at least one version is installed. nvm's own `.nvmrc` parser strips comments, so a bare `nvm use` is not affected; however, the bash `cdnvm` and zsh `load-nvmrc` auto-switch hooks documented in the README read `.nvmrc` as-is and pass it to `nvm ls` and `nvm version`, so a user with one of those hooks installed runs the attacker's command just by changing into a directory under a malicious `.nvmrc`; scripts that run `nvm use "$(cat .nvmrc)"` are affected the same way. Version 0.40.6 passes any version pattern containing `#` or a newline through the `.nvmrc` content parser first, so no `#` reaches the sed program.
Source: NVD (NIST), cvelistv5
Affected products
The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.
| Affected versions | Fixed in | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| nvm-sh | nvm |
|
|
Vendors and products
Weakness classes (CWE)
CWE-78Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')
Base
The product constructs all or part of an OS command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended OS command when it is sent to a downstream component.
Entry at MITRE CWE-78CWE-94Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
Base
The product constructs all or part of a code segment using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the syntax or behavior of the intended code segment.
Entry at MITRE CWE-94
References & sources
- github.comFix commit 82315e2bPatch
- github.comnvm-sh/nvm#3854Patch
- github.comv0.40.6Release notes
- github.comGHSA-vgqf-vc3m-4wv3Vendor advisory
Changes to this CVE
Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).
Received7ffcee3d…
CVSS V4.0: AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CVSS V3.1: AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Weakness type: CWE-94, CWE-78
Description added or changed
Show 10 original changes
Individual changes of this event as published by NVD Type Action Before After Description added —Node Version Manager (nvm) is a POSIX-compliant shell function for managing multiple node.js versions. In versions 0.31.2 through 0.40.5, `nvm_ls` filters installed versions with a sed program that embeds the requested version pattern in a `\#...#` address, escaping `.` (and, since 0.40.4, `#`) but not backslash. A version string containing `#` (or `\#`) therefore closes the address early, and the rest of it is parsed as sed commands: with GNU sed, the `e` command runs a shell command as the user; with BSD sed, the `w` and `r` commands write and read files. This is reachable whenever an attacker-influenced version string is passed to `nvm use`, `nvm which`, `nvm ls`, `nvm version`, `nvm run`, or `nvm exec`, or to `nvm-exec` via `NODE_VERSION`, and at least one version is installed. nvm's own `.nvmrc` parser strips comments, so a bare `nvm use` is not affected; however, the bash `cdnvm` and zsh `load-nvmrc` auto-switch hooks documented in the README read `.nvmrc` as-is and pass it to `nvm ls` and `nvm version`, so a user with one of those hooks installed runs the attacker's command just by changing into a directory under a malicious `.nvmrc`; scripts that run `nvm use "$(cat .nvmrc)"` are affected the same way. Version 0.40.6 passes any version pattern containing `#` or a newline through the `.nvmrc` content parser first, so no `#` reaches the sed program.CVSS added —AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:XCVSS added —AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HWeakness type (CWE) added —CWE-94Weakness type (CWE) added —CWE-78Affected versions (publisher) added —New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/118xxx/CVE-2026-118905.json">CVE-2026-118905</a>Reference added —https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm/commit/82315e2b189528a006da6701eac30e8c364ffd22Reference added —https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm/pull/3854Reference added —https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm/releases/tag/v0.40.6Reference added —https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm/security/advisories/GHSA-vgqf-vc3m-4wv3Source identifier: 7ffcee3d-2c14-4c3e-b844-86c6a321a158
Embed badge
Show the severity and KEV status of this vulnerability on your site – with a link back here. The image is updated hourly.
<a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2026-118905"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2026-118905.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2026-118905 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>