UBUNTU-CVE-2026-13311

Description

shell-quote prior to 1.8.5 finalizes parsed tokens in parse() using Array.prototype.concat as a reduce accumulator, which reallocates and copies the entire growing array on every iteration. As a result parse() runs in O(n^2) time relative to the number of input tokens. An attacker who can supply an attacker-controlled string to any code path that calls parse() (no shell metacharacters are required; plain space-separated words suffice) can block the single-threaded Node.js event loop for an extended period with a small input, resulting in a denial of service. There is no code execution or data disclosure; impact is to availability only. Fixed in 1.8.5.

CVSS Metrics

• v4.0•HIGH•Score: 8.7CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
• v3.1•HIGH•Score: 7.5CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected Systems

• ubuntu•node-shell-quote

  all | all | all

References (4)

• https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-13311
• https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-13311
• https://github.com/ljharb/shell-quote/security/advisories/GHSA-395f-4hp3-45gv
• https://www.npmjs.com/package/shell-quote