CVE-2015-8391

critical
Published 2015-12-02 · Modified 2026-05-06
CVSS v3
9.8
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS v2
9.0
VIR risk
9.8

Description

The pcre_compile function in pcre_compile.c in PCRE before 8.38 mishandles certain [: nesting, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted regular expression, as demonstrated by a JavaScript RegExp object encountered by Konqueror.

Predictions

Exploit likelihood
97%
Patch ETA

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: debian — https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2015-8391

OS impact

OSVersionStatusFixed in
fedora fedora22affected
redhat rhel7.0affected
redhat rhel7.2affected
redhat rhel7.3affected
redhat rhel7.4affected
redhat rhel7.5affected
redhat rhel7.6affected
redhat rhel7.7affected
debian debianbookwormfixed2:8.38-1
debian debianbullseyefixed2:8.38-1

Application impact

VendorProductVersionsFixed
pcrepcre{"endExcluding":"8.38"}8.38
php phpphp{"startIncluding":"5.5.0","endExcluding":"5.5.32"}5.5.32

References

CWEs

CWE-119

Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.