CVE-2025-70030 in SunbirdEd
Summary
by MITRE • 03/09/2026
An issue pertaining to CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity (4.19) was discovered in Sunbird-Ed SunbirdEd-portal v1.13.4.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/12/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-70030 represents a critical security flaw within the Sunbird-Ed SunbirdEd-portal version 1.13.4, specifically categorized under CWE-1333 which addresses inefficient regular expression complexity. This issue manifests as a potential denial of service vulnerability that can be exploited through crafted input patterns designed to trigger excessive computational resources during regular expression evaluation. The vulnerability arises from the application's handling of user-supplied input within regular expression operations, where poorly constructed patterns can lead to exponential time complexity during pattern matching processes.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability occurs when the Sunbird-Ed portal processes user input through regular expression engines that lack proper complexity bounds or resource limiting mechanisms. Attackers can craft malicious input strings that, when processed through the vulnerable regular expressions, cause the system to consume excessive CPU cycles and memory resources. This behavior aligns with the characteristics of catastrophic backtracking as defined in CWE-1333, where regular expression engines can spend enormous amounts of time exploring different matching paths before determining that no valid match exists. The vulnerability is particularly concerning in web applications where user input is directly processed without proper sanitization or rate limiting measures.
The operational impact of CVE-2025-70030 extends beyond simple performance degradation to potentially enable full denial of service conditions against the affected portal. When exploited, the vulnerability can cause the application to become unresponsive or crash entirely, disrupting legitimate user access to educational resources and services. This vulnerability affects the availability aspect of the security triad, potentially impacting educational institutions that rely on the Sunbird-Ed platform for their digital learning environments. The attack surface includes any functionality within the portal that accepts user input and processes it through regular expression matching operations, making it a widespread concern across the application's user-facing components.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on implementing proper regular expression validation and resource limiting measures. Organizations should employ regular expression engines that support time and memory limits, or implement custom validation to prevent overly complex patterns from being processed. The implementation of input sanitization and rate limiting mechanisms can help prevent exploitation attempts from overwhelming the system. Additionally, regular expression patterns should be reviewed and optimized to eliminate potential backtracking scenarios, following best practices established in the OWASP Top Ten and other security frameworks. System administrators should also implement monitoring and alerting mechanisms to detect unusual resource consumption patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of adhering to secure coding practices and conducting regular security assessments to identify and remediate potential weaknesses in input processing components.