Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
A flaw in affected cross-spawn versions can let an attacker consume excessive CPU and crash an application by supplying an unusually large, specially crafted string. The primary business risk is service disruption, not data theft or modification.
Executive priority
Prioritize remediation for internet-facing or multi-tenant services where untrusted input reaches cross-spawn. Other deployments should follow routine high-severity dependency remediation after confirming reachability. Escalate if service crashes or unexplained CPU spikes are observed.
Technical view
CVE-2024-21538 is a CWE-1333 regular-expression denial-of-service vulnerability caused by improper input sanitization. A crafted string can trigger excessive regex processing, raising CPU usage and potentially terminating the process. The supplied CVSS 4.0 score is 8.7, with high availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most significant where vulnerable cross-spawn versions are directly or transitively installed and attacker-controlled strings can reach the affected processing path. Package presence alone does not prove remote exploitability; application data flow and reachability must be assessed.
Exploitation context
The supplied record is not listed in KEV and provides no evidence of active exploitation. Its CVSS vector reports proof-of-concept maturity. Public code changes are available, but they do not establish widespread or in-the-wild attacks.
Researcher notes
The source bundle identifies affected ranges as versions before 6.0.6 and 7.0.0 through 7.0.4. Its separate affected-product summaries are less precise, especially for the WebJar artifact. Validate package coordinates, resolved versions, and actual input flow before declaring exposure.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade pre-6.0.6 installations to 6.0.6 or a later supported release.
- Upgrade 7.0.0 through 7.0.4 installations to 7.0.5 or later.
- Update lockfiles and rebuild deployed artifacts to remove vulnerable transitive copies.
- For the WebJar package, confirm the corrected release using its vendor guidance.
- Restrict untrusted input from affected processing paths until upgrades are deployed.
Validation and detection
- Inventory direct and transitive cross-spawn versions in lockfiles, SBOMs, and deployed artifacts.
- Confirm no versions below 6.0.6 or from 7.0.0 through 7.0.4 remain.
- Trace whether externally controlled strings can reach code using the affected dependency.
- Verify rebuilt production artifacts contain the intended corrected dependency version.
- Run controlled availability and regression tests without using production systems.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-1333: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2024-21538 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 8.7 (4.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
2 official scoresWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P——snykCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H/E:P3.93.6snykVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 4.0 score
8.7HighVector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
Base CVSS 3.1 score
7.5HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H/E:P
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://security.snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JS-CROSSSPAWN-8303230CVE reference, snyk
- https://security.snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JAVA-ORGWEBJARSNPM-8366349CVE reference, snyk
- https://github.com/moxystudio/node-cross-spawn/pull/160CVE reference, snyk
- https://github.com/moxystudio/node-cross-spawn/commit/640d391fde65388548601d95abedccc12943374fCVE reference, snyk
- https://github.com/moxystudio/node-cross-spawn/commit/5ff3a07d9add449021d806e45c4168203aa833ffCVE reference, snyk
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity
Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.