CVE-2015-8855 Regular Expression Denial of Service in semver
Attackers can cause denial of service via CPU exhaustion using long version strings in the Node.js semver library.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2015-8855?
CVE-2015-8855 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Nodejs Node.js, published on 23 Jan 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
The semver package before 4.3.2 for Node.js allows attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via a long version string, aka a "regular expression denial of service (ReDoS)."
Weakness: CWE-399
Which versions are affected by CVE-2015-8855?
2 open source packages ship an affected version, including semver. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
semver npm | From 1.0.4 | 4.3.2 |
semver npm | From 1.0.4 | 4.3.2 |
Products include Nodejs Node.js.
How do I fix CVE-2015-8855?
Upgrade semver to 4.3.2 or later.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2015-8855 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-8855 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Nodejs Node.js
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2015-8855, GHSA-x6fg-f45m-jf5q, UBUNTU-CVE-2015-8855, USN-4776-1.