# CVE-2024-45296: path-to-regexp outputs backtracking regular expressions

> Attackers can cause denial of service by triggering inefficient regular expression backtracking in the path-to-regexp library.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 9 Sep 2024
- **Updated:** 24 Jan 2025
- **Also known as:** AZL-49085, AZL-49103, AZL-49117, AZL-49158, AZL-49161, CLEANSTART-2026-DG43720, CLEANSTART-2026-DV63106, CLSA-2026-1783731816, CLSA-2026-1791833994, CLSA-2026-1792473274, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-45296, ECHO-76c4-20a9-8aa9, MINI-9x9v-j8v2-gwxq, MINI-qffh-xq78-m6gv, ROOT-APP-NPM-CVE-2024-45296, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-45296, USN-8290-1, openSUSE-SU-2024:14374-1

## What is CVE-2024-45296?

CVE-2024-45296 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in pillarjs path-to-regexp, published on 9 Sep 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

path-to-regexp turns path strings into a regular expressions. In certain cases, path-to-regexp will output a regular expression that can be exploited to cause poor performance. Because JavaScript is single threaded and regex matching runs on the main thread, poor performance will block the event loop and lead to a DoS. The bad regular expression is generated any time you have two parameters within a single segment, separated by something that is not a period (.). For users of 0.1, upgrade to 0.1.10. All other users should upgrade to 8.0.0.

Weakness: CWE-1333 (Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-45296?


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `argocd-cli` | openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 2.12.4-1.1 |

## How do I fix CVE-2024-45296?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2024-45296 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-45296 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-45296 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-45296 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in pillarjs path-to-regexp, published on 9 Sep 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-45296 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: pillarjs path-to-regexp. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-45296/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-45296/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-45296
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-45296
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-45296

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-45296/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.