GCHQ CyberChef up to 11.2.x Pretty-Recipe Parser src/core/Utils.mjs Utils.parseRecipeConfig resource consumption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in GCHQ CyberChef up to 11.2.x. It has been rated as problematic. This issue affects the function Utils.parseRecipeConfig of the file src/core/Utils.mjs of the component Pretty-Recipe Parser. This manipulation causes resource consumption. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-72912. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as problematic was found in GCHQ CyberChef up to 11.2.x. Affected by this vulnerability is the function Utils.parseRecipeConfig of the file src/core/Utils.mjs of the component Pretty-Recipe Parser. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a resource consumption vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-400. The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource, thereby enabling an actor to influence the amount of resources consumed, eventually leading to the exhaustion of available resources. As an impact it is known to affect availability. The summary by CVE is:

CyberChef is a web app for encryption, encoding, compression, and data analysis. Prior to 11.3.0, CyberChef's pretty-recipe parser in src/core/Utils.mjs can exhaust client-side CPU when a malformed #recipe= URL fragment containing a large number of unmatched quote characters reaches Utils.parseRecipeConfig(). The function synchronously applies a complex global regular expression that may perform heavy backtracking before rejecting the input, causing the victim's browser tab to freeze during startup for seconds or longer. No code execution, data exfiltration, or privilege escalation occurs. This issue is fixed in version 11.3.0.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-72912 since 08/10/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1499 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

Upgrading to version 11.3.0 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• GCHQ

Name

• CyberChef

Version

• 11.0
• 11.1
• 11.2

Website

• Product: https://github.com/gchq/CyberChef/

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