# 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.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 29 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 30 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-102473, ECHO-f9f7-0739-3421, GHSA-3jfv-92rr-qccg, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-102473

## 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 (Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity)

## 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.

## Is CVE-2026-102473 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-102473 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-102473 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-102473 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. 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-2026-102473/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-102473/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-102473
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-102473
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-102473

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-102473/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.