CVE-2026-102473 Dash: dash: super-polynomial backtracking in pmatch when libc fnmatch is disabled
A local attacker can cause excessive CPU consumption in the dash shell via crafted filenames when the internal pattern matcher is used instead of libc fnmatch.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-102473?
CVE-2026-102473 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, published on 29 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A flaw was found in dash. When built without libc fnmatch, the internal pmatch() matcher implements * by unbounded recursion over candidate positions. A local user who can plant filenames, or otherwise feed that matcher, can make a short multi-star pattern such as *.*.*.*.*.tar.gz consume excessive CPU.
Weakness: CWE-1333
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-102473?
How do I fix CVE-2026-102473?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-102473 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
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-2026-102473 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-102473 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-102473, ECHO-f9f7-0739-3421, GHSA-3jfv-92rr-qccg, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-102473.