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Electron: Use-after-free in PowerMonitor on Windows and macOS

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Apr 2, 2026 in electron/electron • Updated Apr 6, 2026

Package

npm electron (npm)

Affected versions

< 38.8.6
>= 39.0.0-alpha.1, < 39.8.1
>= 40.0.0-alpha.1, < 40.8.0
>= 41.0.0-alpha.1, < 41.0.0-beta.8

Patched versions

38.8.6
39.8.1
40.8.0
41.0.0-beta.8

Description

Impact

Apps that use the powerMonitor module may be vulnerable to a use-after-free. After the native PowerMonitor object is garbage-collected, the associated OS-level resources (a message window on Windows, a shutdown handler on macOS) retain dangling references. A subsequent session-change event (Windows) or system shutdown (macOS) dereferences freed memory, which may lead to a crash or memory corruption.

All apps that access powerMonitor events (suspend, resume, lock-screen, etc.) are potentially affected. The issue is not directly renderer-controllable.

Workarounds

There are no app side workarounds, you must update to a patched version of Electron.

Fixed Versions

  • 41.0.0-beta.8
  • 40.8.0
  • 39.8.1
  • 38.8.6

For more information

If there are any questions or comments about this advisory, please email security@electronjs.org

References

@VerteDinde VerteDinde published to electron/electron Apr 2, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Apr 3, 2026
Reviewed Apr 3, 2026
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Apr 4, 2026
Last updated Apr 6, 2026

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(16th percentile)

Weaknesses

Use After Free

The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory belongs to the code that operates on the new pointer. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-34770

GHSA ID

GHSA-jjp3-mq3x-295m

Source code

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