Memory Exhaustion in vm2 via Buffer Operations

Publication date: 2026-08-17

Last updated on: 2026-08-17

Assigner: GitHub, Inc.

Description

vm2 is an open source vm/sandbox for Node.js. Prior to 3.11.6, the bufferAllocLimit enforcement in lib/setup-sandbox.js does not cover Buffer.concat(list, totalLength) or Buffer.from(arrayLike) with an attacker-controlled length, allowing sandbox code to perform large synchronous host external-memory allocations that bypass the configured cap and can exhaust the host process. This issue is fixed in version 3.11.6.

CVSS Scores

EPSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published

2026-08-17

Last Modified

2026-08-17

Generated

2026-08-18

AI Q&A

2026-08-18

EPSS Evaluated

N/A

NVD

CVE-2026-47683

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
vm2	vm2	3.11.6

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-770	The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any intended restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated.

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

The vulnerability in vm2 before version 3.11.6 allows sandboxed code to bypass memory limits by using Buffer.concat or Buffer.from with attacker-controlled lengths. This causes large synchronous memory allocations on the host system, potentially exhausting system resources.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can lead to denial-of-service by crashing the host process due to excessive memory consumption. It may also allow unauthorized code execution in the sandboxed environment if combined with other exploits.

Mitigation Strategies

Update vm2 to version 3.11.6 or later to address the buffer allocation bypass issue.

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