All lodash CVEs — Complete Vulnerability History

lodash is one of the most-downloaded JavaScript utility libraries. It has had several high-severity CVEs, mostly prototype pollution and command injection. All are fixed in 4.17.21.

npm 50M+ weekly downloads 6 CVEs total 1 CRITICAL 🔴 CISA KEV

CVE history — all 6 known vulnerabilities

🔴 1 CVE on CISA KEV — actively exploited in real attacks

CVE ID Year Severity Description Fix
CVE-2018-3721 2018 MEDIUM Prototype pollution via defaultsDeep Fixed in 4.17.5
CVE-2018-16487 2018 HIGH Prototype pollution via merge Fixed in 4.17.11
CVE-2019-1010266 2019 MEDIUM Regular expression DoS in trim functions Fixed in 4.17.11
CVE-2019-10744 2019 CRITICAL Prototype pollution via defaultsDeep (bypass) Fixed in 4.17.12
CVE-2020-8203 2020 🔴HIGH Prototype pollution via zipObjectDeep and merge — CISA KEV Fixed in 4.17.21
CVE-2021-23337 2021 HIGH Command injection via template function Fixed in 4.17.21

Current safe version

✓ Update to 4.17.21

The latest safe version addresses all 6 known CVEs listed above.

Before and after

Vulnerable:

"lodash": "4.17.15"

Fixed:

"lodash": "4.17.21"

Then run: npm install

Paste your manifest — see your exact installed version against this full CVE list.

Scan with PackageFix →

Free · No signup · No CLI · Runs in your browser

Common questions

How many CVEs does lodash have?
lodash has 6 known CVEs, all fixed in version 4.17.21. The most severe are the prototype pollution vulnerabilities CVE-2020-8203 (CISA KEV) and CVE-2019-10744 (CRITICAL). Keeping lodash at 4.17.21 addresses all of them.
Is lodash safe to use in 2026?
Yes — lodash 4.17.21 has no known unpatched CVEs. That said, lodash is increasingly replaced by native JavaScript for many operations. If you're starting a new project, consider whether you need lodash or if native Array/Object methods cover your use cases.
Why does lodash have so many prototype pollution CVEs?
lodash does deep object merging and manipulation — functions like merge(), defaultsDeep(), and zipObjectDeep(). These operations are inherently tricky to implement safely when user-controlled keys are involved. The team patched each variant as they were discovered.
What is CISA KEV and why is CVE-2020-8203 on it?
CISA KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities) is a catalog of CVEs confirmed being used in real attacks. CVE-2020-8203 was added because attackers were using lodash prototype pollution to bypass authentication in web applications. It means you should treat this as urgent, not just routine.

Related