A vulnerability classified as very critical has been found in PCRE up to 8.37 (Programming Tool Software). Affected is an unknown function of the file /(?J)(?'d'(?'d'\g{d}))/. The manipulation with the input value /(?J)(?d(?d\g{d}))/ leads to a memory corruption vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-119. The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it can read from or write to a memory location that is outside of the intended boundary of the buffer. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the /(?J)(?'d'(?'d'\g{d}))/ pattern and related patterns with certain recursive back references, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (buffer overflow) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted regular expression, as demonstrated by a JavaScript RegExp object encountered by Konqueror, a related issue to CVE-2015-8392 and CVE-2015-8395.

The weakness was published 12/02/2015 (oss-sec). The advisory is shared for download at openwall.com. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2015-8384 since 12/01/2015. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. The exploitation doesn't require any form of authentication. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 06/28/2022).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 89641 (Fedora 22 : mingw-pcre-8.38-1.fc22 (2016-f59a8ff5d0)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment. It is assigned to the family Fedora Local Security Checks and running in the context l. The commercial vulnerability scanner Qualys is able to test this issue with plugin 196440 (Ubuntu Security Notification for pcre3 vulnerabilities (USN-2943-1)).

Upgrading to version 8.38 eliminates this vulnerability. A possible mitigation has been published 3 months after the disclosure of the vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (89641). Similar entries are available at 75660, 79370, 79371 and 79376.

Productinfo

Type

• Programming Tool Software

Name

• PCRE

Version

• 8.0
• 8.1
• 8.2
• 8.3
• 8.4
• 8.5
• 8.6
• 8.7
• 8.8
• 8.9
• 8.10
• 8.11
• 8.12
• 8.13
• 8.14
• 8.15
• 8.16
• 8.17
• 8.18
• 8.19
• 8.20
• 8.21
• 8.22
• 8.23
• 8.24
• 8.25
• 8.26
• 8.27
• 8.28
• 8.29
• 8.30
• 8.31
• 8.32
• 8.33
• 8.34
• 8.35
• 8.36
• 8.37

License

• open-source

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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