CVE-2016-10540 Regular Expression Denial of Service in minimatch

High 7.5 Published 31 May 2018 Updated 16 Sep 2024

Attackers can cause denial of service in applications using Minimatch by supplying malicious glob patterns that trigger excessive CPU consumption.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2016-10540?

CVE-2016-10540 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in HackerOne minimatch node module, published on 31 May 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Minimatch is a minimal matching utility that works by converting glob expressions into JavaScript `RegExp` objects. The primary function, `minimatch(path, pattern)` in Minimatch 3.0.1 and earlier is vulnerable to ReDoS in the `pattern` parameter.

Weakness: CWE-20, CWE-400

Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-10540?

2 open source packages ship an affected version, including minimatch. It affects 1 product.

Package	Affected	Fixed in
`minimatch` npm	All versions	`3.0.2`
`minimatch` npm	All versions	`3.0.2`

Products include Minimatch Project Minimatch.

How do I fix CVE-2016-10540?

Upgrade minimatch to 3.0.2 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-2016-10540 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-10540 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as AZL-44502, CLSA-2026-1773620219, CLSA-2026-1774484506, CLSA-2026-1777250299, CVE-2016-1000023, DEBIAN-CVE-2016-10540 and 3 more.