CVE-2026-27904 PUBLISHED

minimatch ReDoS: nested *() extglobs generate catastrophically backtracking regular expressions

Assigner: GitHub_M
Reserved: 24.02.2026 Published: 26.02.2026 Updated: 26.02.2026

minimatch is a minimal matching utility for converting glob expressions into JavaScript RegExp objects. Prior to version 10.2.3, 9.0.7, 8.0.6, 7.4.8, 6.2.2, 5.1.8, 4.2.5, and 3.1.4, nested *() extglobs produce regexps with nested unbounded quantifiers (e.g. (?:(?:a|b)*)*), which exhibit catastrophic backtracking in V8. With a 12-byte pattern *(*(*(a|b))) and an 18-byte non-matching input, minimatch() stalls for over 7 seconds. Adding a single nesting level or a few input characters pushes this to minutes. This is the most severe finding: it is triggered by the default minimatch() API with no special options, and the minimum viable pattern is only 12 bytes. The same issue affects +() extglobs equally. Versions 10.2.3, 9.0.7, 8.0.6, 7.4.8, 6.2.2, 5.1.8, 4.2.5, and 3.1.4 fix the issue.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS Score: 7.5

Product Status

Vendor isaacs
Product minimatch
Versions
  • Version >= 10.0.0, < 10.2.3 is affected
  • Version >= 9.0.0, < 9.0.7 is affected
  • Version >= 8.0.0, < 8.0.6 is affected
  • Version >= 7.0.0, < 7.4.8 is affected
  • Version >= 6.0.0, < 6.2.2 is affected
  • Version >= 5.0.0, < 5.1.8 is affected
  • Version >= 4.0.0, < 4.2.5 is affected
  • Version < 3.1.4 is affected

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity CWE