CVE-2026-13311
Description
A flaw was found in the shell-quote component. An attacker who can supply a specially crafted string to the parse() function can exploit an inefficiency in how the component processes input. This can cause the single-threaded Node.js event loop to be blocked for an extended period, leading to a denial of service (DoS) for the affected system. The vulnerability impacts the availability of the system, with no risk of code execution or data disclosure.
Statement
A flaw was found in the shell-quote npm package's parse() function, which uses an O(n²) array concatenation pattern when processing tokens. An attacker who can supply untrusted input to code paths calling parse() can block the Node.js event loop with a relatively small payload of space-separated words, causing a denial of service (DoS). The vulnerable parse() function is not typically exposed to external user input in Red Hat product deployments, reducing the practical exploitability of this flaw.
Mitigation
Upgrade shell-quote to version 1.8.5.
If upgrading shell-quote to version 1.8.5 or later is not immediately possible, the following mitigations can reduce exposure:
1. Validate and limit the length of any user-controlled strings before passing them to shell-quote's `parse()` function.
2. If `parse()` is not required, ensure that only the `quote()` function is used, as it is not affected by this vulnerability.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 6.5 | N/A | 7.5 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | Low | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | None |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | None |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (Other); Reduce Performance
This issue can make the product perform more slowly. If an attacker can influence the number of iterations in the loop, then this performance problem might allow a denial of service by consuming more platform resources than intended.
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