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OpenAdvisories
High · 7.5 CVE-2026-13311 EUVD-2026-39180GHSA-395f-4hp3-45gv

shell-quote parse() is quadratic in token count, enabling denial of service

Published Jun 25, 2026 · Updated Jun 25, 2026 · Assigned by harborist

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.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
ljharb shell-quote ≤ 1.8.4 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 node-shell-quote 1.9.0+~1.7.5-1 —
Debian 13 node-shell-quote 1.7.4+~1.7.1-1+deb13u2 —
Debian 12 node-shell-quote 1.7.4+~1.7.1-1+deb12u2 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 node-shell-quote No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 node-shell-quote No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS node-shell-quote No fix yet —
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 26.04 LTS node-shell-quote No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS node-shell-quote No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS node-shell-quote No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed agama-web-ui 23+75.1a877fb50-50.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:11472-1
openSUSE Tumbleweed heroic-games-launcher 2.22.0-3.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:11145-1
openSUSE Tumbleweed python-pytest-html 4.2.0-3.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:11149-1
openSUSE Leap 16.0 agama-web-ui 17+673.b97ba64d6-160000.12.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:21448-1
openSUSE Leap 16.0 python-pytest-html 4.1.1-bp160.3.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:21176-1

Wolfi

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Wolfi rolling argo-workflows-ui-4.0 4.0.11-r0 —
Wolfi rolling code-server 4.130.0-r3 —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
npm shell-quote < 1.9.0 1.9.0 GHSA-395f-4hp3-45gv

Advisories 5

References