# CVE-2026-87722: Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in Search Query Predicates and REST Filter Endpoints in Gerrit Code Review

> Unauthenticated attackers can cause denial of service in Gerrit Code Review via crafted regex queries that exhaust CPU and memory resources.

- **Severity:** High 8.7 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 24 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 25 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-qgc5-8q25-ffxc

## What is CVE-2026-87722?

CVE-2026-87722 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gerrit, published on 24 Sep 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400 / CWE-1333) in regex search query predicates (such as RegexProjectPredicate, RegexRefPredicate, RegexPathPredicate, and sibling predicates) and REST regex filter endpoints (RegexListSearcher /projects/?r= and RefFilter /projects/{project}/branches/?r=) in Gerrit Code Review versions 2.1.6 through 3.12.9, 3.13.0 through 3.13.8, and 3.14.0 through 3.14.2 allows an unauthenticated remote attacker (or an authenticated user if anonymous read access is disabled) to cause a denial of service (CPU starvation and JVM heap exhaustion / OutOfMemoryError) via crafted search queries or REST API requests containing regular expressions with large counted repetitions or exponential DFA determinization patterns. Because the user-supplied regular expression is compiled into an unbounded dk.brics.automaton instance (new RegExp(re).toAutomaton()) on the request thread prior to index evaluation or access control visibility filtering, trivial queries can exhaust JVM heap or pin request threads regardless of heap size. This issue is fixed in Gerrit Code Review versions 3.12.10, 3.13.9, and 3.14.3.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption), CWE-1333 (Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-87722?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-87722?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-87722 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-87722 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-87722 exists.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-87722 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-87722 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gerrit, published on 24 Sep 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-87722 exists.

Affected product: Gerrit. 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-2026-87722/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-87722/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-87722
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-87722
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-87722

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-87722/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
