---
title: "GHSA-qg8p-v9q4-gh34: Potential Command Injection in shell-quote"
description: "Critical severity. Potential Command Injection in shell-quote. Affects shell-quote; fixed in 1.6.1."
url: https://inlinr.com/advisories/GHSA-qg8p-v9q4-gh34
lang: en
---

[Packages](https://inlinr.com/packages) / [shell-quote](https://inlinr.com/packages/shell-quote) / [Security](https://inlinr.com/packages/shell-quote/security)

Critical Vulnerability GHSA-qg8p-v9q4-gh34 CVE-2016-10541 Published 18 Feb 2019

# Potential Command Injection in shell-quote

Your version 

Affected releases · [shell-quote](https://inlinr.com/packages/shell-quote)

- 1.x 1.0.0 – 1.6.0 Fixed in 1.6.1
- 0.1.x and older 0.0.0 – 0.1.1 No fix, no longer updated

On 1.x, the newest line:

```
npm install shell-quote@1.6.1
```

Every release on a timeline

1.x 

1. Affected

1.0.0 – 1.6.0  
13 releases
2. Fixed

1.6.1 – 1.12.0  
17 releases, latest

0.x 

1. Affected

0.0.0 – 0.1.1  
4 releases

34 stable releases of shell-quote, oldest to newest, one row per major.

## What happens

Affected versions of `shell-quote` do not properly escape command line arguments, which may result in command injection if the library is used to escape user input destined for use as command line arguments.

Proof of Concept:

The following characters are not escaped properly: `>`,`;`,`{`,`}`

Bash has a neat but not well known feature known as "Bash Brace Expansion", wherein a sub-command can be executed without spaces by running it between a set of `{}` and using the `,` instead of `` to seperate arguments. Because of this, full command injection is possible even though it was initially thought to be impossible. 

```
   const quote = require('shell-quote').quote;
   console.log(quote(['a;{echo,test,123,234}']));
   // Actual                    "a;{echo,test,123,234}"
   // Expected                  "a\;\{echo,test,123,234\}"
   // Functional Equivalent     "a; echo 'test' '123' '1234'"
```

Recommendation

Update to version 1.6.1 or later.

## How it is exploited

Exploitable over the network, with no account and no action from a user.

- **Confidentiality**: high
- **Integrity**: high
- **Availability**: high

CVSS:3.0/​AV:N/​AC:L/​PR:N/​UI:N/​S:U/​C:H/​I:H/​A:H

## References

- [NVD](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-10541 "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-10541")  
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-10541
- [GitHub advisory](https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-qg8p-v9q4-gh34 "https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-qg8p-v9q4-gh34")  
github.com/advisories/GHSA-qg8p-v9q4-gh34
- [Reference](https://www.npmjs.com/advisories/117 "https://www.npmjs.com/advisories/117")  
npmjs.com/advisories/117