VYPR
High severityNVD Advisory· Published Mar 30, 2021· Updated Aug 3, 2024

Misuse of `Reference` and other transferable APIs may lead to access to nodejs isolate

CVE-2021-21413

Description

isolated-vm is a library for nodejs which gives you access to v8's Isolate interface. Versions of isolated-vm before v4.0.0 have API pitfalls which may make it easy for implementers to expose supposed secure isolates to the permissions of the main nodejs isolate. Reference objects allow access to the underlying reference's full prototype chain. In an environment where the implementer has exposed a Reference instance to an attacker they would be able to use it to acquire a Reference to the nodejs context's Function object. Similar application-specific attacks could be possible by modifying the local prototype of other API objects. Access to NativeModule objects could allow an attacker to load and run native code from anywhere on the filesystem. If combined with, for example, a file upload API this would allow for arbitrary code execution. This is addressed in v4.0.0 through a series of related changes.

AI Insight

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Affected packages

Versions sourced from the GitHub Security Advisory.

PackageAffected versionsPatched versions
isolated-vmnpm
< 4.0.04.0.0

Affected products

2

Patches

Vulnerability mechanics

Generated on May 9, 2026. Inputs: CWE entries + fix-commit diffs from this CVE's patches. Citations validated against bundle.

References

6

News mentions

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