VulnerabilityPublished 14 Feb 2025Updated 16 Jan 2026

CVE-2025-25290: octokit request.js · ReDoS

Affects octokit request.jsSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.3 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.3Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 55% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: Low

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 14 Feb 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-25290, European organizations should: 1) Upgrade all instances of octokit request.js to version 9.2.1 or later, or 8.4.1 or later, where the regex vulnerability is fixed. 2) Implement input validation and sanitization on HTTP headers, particularly the 'link' header, to detect and reject suspicious or malformed inputs that could trigger regex backtracking. 3) Employ rate limiting and anomaly detection on API endpoints or services that process GitHub API responses to reduce the risk of resource exhaustion attacks. 4) Monitor application logs and performance metrics for unusual CPU spikes or slowdowns during API interactions that could indicate attempted exploitation. 5) For critical infrastructure, consider isolating or sandboxing components that parse external HTTP headers to limit the impact of potential DoS attacks. 6) Educate development teams about the risks of ReDoS vulnerabilities and encourage secure coding practices when handling untrusted input. 7) Review and update dependency management policies to ensure timely patching of third-party libraries. These measures collectively reduce the likelihood and impact of exploitation beyond simply upgrading the vulnerable library.

Description

@octokit/request sends parameterized requests to GitHub’s APIs with sensible defaults in browsers and Node. Starting in version 1.0.0 and prior to versions 9.2.1 and 8.4.1, the regular expression `/<([^>]+)>; rel="deprecation"/` used to match the `link` header in HTTP responses is vulnerable to a ReDoS (Regular Expression Denial of Service) attack. This vulnerability arises due to the unbounded nature of the regex's matching behavior, which can lead to catastrophic backtracking when processing specially crafted input. An attacker could exploit this flaw by sending a malicious `link` header, resulting in excessive CPU usage and potentially causing the server to become unresponsive, impacting service availability. Versions 9.2.1 and 8.4.1 fix the issue.

Impact

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-25290 is on service availability. Organizations that integrate octokit request.js in their development workflows, automation tools, or backend services communicating with GitHub APIs may experience denial of service conditions if targeted with maliciously crafted HTTP headers. This can disrupt software development processes, continuous integration pipelines, and automated deployments, potentially causing delays and operational downtime. While the vulnerability does not compromise data confidentiality or integrity, the availability impact can affect business continuity and developer productivity. Organizations with large-scale software development operations or those providing developer tooling services are at higher risk. Additionally, cloud-based services or SaaS platforms that incorporate octokit request.js might face customer impact due to service degradation. The absence of authentication requirements for exploitation increases the attack surface, allowing remote attackers to trigger the issue without prior access. However, the lack of known exploits in the wild suggests limited immediate threat but warrants proactive mitigation to prevent future attacks.

CWE-1333Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: High
The product uses a regular expression with a worst-case computational complexity that is inefficient and possibly exponential.
Architecture and Design
Use regular expressions that do not support backtracking, e.g. by removing nested quantifiers.
System Configuration
Set backtracking limits in the configuration of the regular expression implementation, such as PHP's pcre.backtrack_limit. Also consider limits on execution time for the process.
Implementation
Do not use regular expressions with untrusted input. If regular expressions must be used, avoid using backtracking in the expression.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
File Upload (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.1.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Regular Expression Exponential Blowup (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 16 Jan 2026, 18:06 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-1333

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats