The bug resides in the NodejsFunction Docker bundling pipeline of AWS CDK. A malicious actor who can control the content of a dependency version string in a project's package.json can inject shell metacharacters that the OsCommand helper passes to the host shell, allowing that actor to run arbitrary commands on the machine that runs the CDK toolchain. This flaw corresponds to CWE‑78, an OS command injection vulnerability.

All platforms that run AWS CDK using the NodejsFunction Docker bundling feature are affected. The vulnerability exists in versions prior to v2.260.0 and was fixed in that release.

The CVSS score of 7 classifies the vulnerability as high severity. The EPSS score of <1 % indicates that exploitation is currently unlikely, yet the absence from the CISA KEV catalog does not negate its potential impact. The required attack path involves modifying a package.json dependency version string, which generally implies code‑repository access or injection of a malicious package from a source registry. Successful exploitation would give the attacker the ability to execute arbitrary shell commands on the host running CDK.