Description
Pug is an npm package which is a high-performance template engine. In pug before version 3.0.1, if a remote attacker was able to control the `pretty` option of the pug compiler, e.g. if you spread a user provided object such as the query parameters of a request into the pug template inputs, it was possible for them to achieve remote code execution on the node.js backend. This is fixed in version 3.0.1. This advisory applies to multiple pug packages including "pug", "pug-code-gen". pug-code-gen has a backported fix at version 2.0.3. This advisory is not exploitable if there is no way for un-trusted input to be passed to pug as the `pretty` option, e.g. if you compile templates in advance before applying user input to them, you do not need to upgrade.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| pugjs | pug | < 3.0.1 | — |
Public exploits
Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.
GitHub 1 repository
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jinsu9758/PUG-RCE-CVE-2021-21353-POC ★ 2 · Mar 29, 2025
Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| npm | pug | < 3.0.1 | 3.0.1 | GHSA-p493-635q-r6gr |
| npm | pug-code-gen | < 2.0.3 | 2.0.3 | GHSA-p493-635q-r6gr |
| npm | pug-code-gen | >= 3.0.0, < 3.0.2 | 3.0.2 | GHSA-p493-635q-r6gr |
References
- https://github.com/pugjs/pug/security/advisories/GHSA-p493-635q-r6gr
- https://github.com/pugjs/pug/issues/3312
- https://github.com/pugjs/pug/pull/3314
- https://github.com/pugjs/pug/commit/991e78f7c4220b2f8da042877c6f0ef5a4683be0
- https://github.com/pugjs/pug/releases/tag/pug%403.0.1
- https://www.npmjs.com/package/pug
- https://www.npmjs.com/package/pug-code-gen