Vulnerability · Published Aug 22, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck

CVE-2026-57998better-npm-audit OS Command Injection via registry flag

High 7.8

In plain English

A high-severity OS command injection in better-npm-audit from jeemok. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 11% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)7.8High

Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 88.7% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: poc

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

better-npm-audit through 3.11.0, and the 4.0.0-rc.2 prerelease, builds its npm audit command by interpolating the user-supplied --registry option into a command string in src/handlers/handleInput.ts without validation or quoting, then passes that string to child_process.exec() in index.ts, which spawns a shell. A registry value containing shell metacharacters such as a semicolon, pipe, or command substitution executes arbitrary operating system commands with the privileges of the process running the audit.

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
jeemok	better-npm-audit	0 – through 3.11.04.0.0-rc.2

Weakness: CWE-78 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References

GitHub Issue #119 issue-tracking
https://github.com/jeemok/better-npm-audit product
https://github.com/jeemok/better-npm-audit/blob/fd99a0f41ff4342b8a0a6fdbe5a17261de3d0544/src/handlers/handleInput.ts#L30-L37 technical-description
https://github.com/jeemok/better-npm-audit/blob/fd99a0f41ff4342b8a0a6fdbe5a17261de3d0544/index.ts#L34 technical-description
https://github.com/jeemok/better-npm-audit/pull/120 issue-tracking, patch
VulnCheck Advisory: better-npm-audit OS Command Injection via registry flag third-party-advisory