vm2 before 3.12.2 contains an authorization bypass in the NodeVM external-module resolver

Overview

vm2 before 3.12.2 contains an authorization bypass in the NodeVM external-module resolver. When an embedder configures require.external with a custom resolver (and context: 'host'), LegacyResolver.customResolve in lib/resolver-compat.js records the resolved module directory in this.externals as new RegExp('^' + escapeRegExp(resolvedPath)), without requiring a path separator or end-of-string boundary. Untrusted guest code can therefore require the allowlisted module (e.g. foo) and then require the absolute path of a non-allowlisted sibling whose path merely shares the resolved prefix (e.g. .../node_modules/foo2/index.js); the sibling passes isPathAllowedForModule and is loaded through hostRequire, so its top-level code runs in the host process before the exports are wrapped with vm.readonly, resulting in a sandbox escape and arbitrary code execution in the host context.

Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.