CVE-2026-102277
brace-expansion: Quadratic-time expansion of the `{a},b}` rewrite causes CPU denial of service
MEDIUM 5.3
At a glance
- Source
- NVD
- EPSS
- EPSS 0.42 % · percentile 36 ()
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Published
- Updated
- Assigner
- GitHub_M
- NVD status
- Deferred
Description
The brace-expansion library generates arbitrary strings containing a common prefix and suffix. Prior to 1.1.21, 2.1.7, 3.0.9, and 5.0.12, the expand function handles untrusted {a},b}-shaped patterns with many trailing closing braces by restarting its scan once for each trailing closing brace. The successive full-input rescans with linear working-string growth cause quadratic CPU time and memory pressure that can block the Node.js event loop. The process eventually recovers, making the impact a recoverable CPU denial of service. This issue is fixed in versions 1.1.21, 2.1.7, 3.0.9, and 5.0.12.
Weaknesses (CWE)
References
- https://github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/security/advisories/GHSA-q2hr-2g5m-vwhr
- https://github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/commit/33a5ef17b8d800bbfa8c52b14c39043b6aac1a96
- https://github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/commit/bdff773f98e5988616b7039cc9b508df5d640b22
- https://github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/commit/c55e67d8d8b1c56a2474afff15c2891166b2d364
- https://github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/commit/ffdfa3e3806bed17c0874b8f1439b084de354a7e
Scores
| Version | Score | Vector | Scored by |
|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM 5.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L | GitHub_M |
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM 5.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L | NVD · security-advisories@github.com (Secondary) |
Advisories
- GHSA-q2hr-2g5m-vwhr — brace-expansion: Quadratic-time expansion of the `{a},b}` rewrite causes CPU denial of service
European references
- ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2026-88551
- GCVE · GCVE-0-2026-102277
CERT-FR advisories
- CERTFR-2026-AVI-1385 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2026-AVI-1378 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits IBM · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
Affected products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
| juliangruber · brace-expansion | affected >= 4.0.0, < 5.0.12 ; affected >= 3.0.0, < 3.0.9 ; affected >= 2.0.0, < 2.1.7 ; affected < 1.1.21 |
Sources
| Source | Licence |
|---|---|
| CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5) | CVE Program Terms of Use |
| EPSS (FIRST.org) | FIRST — attribution requested |
| ENISA EUVD | ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged |
| CERT-FR (ANSSI) | Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0 |
| NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds | Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD |