Skip to main content

CVE-2025-5889: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity in juliangruber brace-expansion

Low
VulnerabilityCVE-2025-5889cvecve-2025-5889
Published: Mon Jun 09 2025 (06/09/2025, 18:16:01 UTC)
Source: CVE Database V5
Vendor/Project: juliangruber
Product: brace-expansion

Description

A vulnerability was found in juliangruber brace-expansion up to 1.1.11/2.0.1/3.0.0/4.0.0. It has been rated as problematic. Affected by this issue is the function expand of the file index.js. The manipulation leads to inefficient regular expression complexity. The attack may be launched remotely. The complexity of an attack is rather high. The exploitation is known to be difficult. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. Upgrading to version 1.1.12, 2.0.2, 3.0.1 and 4.0.1 is able to address this issue. The name of the patch is a5b98a4f30d7813266b221435e1eaaf25a1b0ac5. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

AI-Powered Analysis

AILast updated: 07/10/2025, 22:33:25 UTC

Technical Analysis

CVE-2025-5889 is a vulnerability identified in the juliangruber brace-expansion library, affecting versions up to 1.1.11, 2.0.1, 3.0.0, and 4.0.0. The issue lies specifically in the 'expand' function within the index.js file, where inefficient regular expression complexity can be triggered. This inefficiency can lead to excessive CPU consumption when processing specially crafted input, potentially causing a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is exploitable remotely without user interaction, but the attack complexity is considered high, and exploitation is difficult. No authentication is required, and the vulnerability does not impact confidentiality, integrity, or availability directly but can degrade service availability through resource exhaustion. The vulnerability has a CVSS 4.0 score of 2.3, indicating low severity. The vendor has released patches in versions 1.1.12, 2.0.2, 3.0.1, and 4.0.1 to address this issue. The exploit has been publicly disclosed, but no known exploits are currently observed in the wild. The patch identifier is a5b98a4f30d7813266b221435e1eaaf25a1b0ac5. Organizations using this library in their software stacks should prioritize upgrading to the fixed versions to mitigate potential risks.

Potential Impact

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-5889 is the potential for denial of service through resource exhaustion caused by inefficient regular expression processing. This can affect web applications, backend services, or any software components that utilize the vulnerable brace-expansion library for pattern expansion. While the severity is low, the impact could be more pronounced in high-availability environments or critical infrastructure where service disruption is costly. Since the vulnerability does not require user interaction or authentication, any exposed service using the affected library could be targeted remotely. However, the high complexity of exploitation and lack of widespread active exploitation reduce immediate risk. Organizations relying on Node.js or JavaScript-based tooling that includes this library should assess their dependency chains. Failure to patch could lead to degraded service performance or outages, impacting business continuity and user experience.

Mitigation Recommendations

1. Immediate upgrade of the juliangruber brace-expansion library to versions 1.1.12, 2.0.2, 3.0.1, or 4.0.1 as applicable. 2. Conduct a thorough inventory of software dependencies to identify all instances of the vulnerable library, including transitive dependencies in Node.js projects. 3. Implement runtime monitoring to detect abnormal CPU usage patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. 4. Employ rate limiting and input validation on endpoints that accept user input potentially processed by brace-expansion to reduce attack surface. 5. Integrate automated dependency scanning tools into CI/CD pipelines to catch vulnerable versions early. 6. Review and harden application logging to capture detailed information on input patterns triggering the expansion function for forensic analysis. 7. Engage with software vendors or third-party providers to confirm patch application if the library is embedded in commercial products. 8. Maintain updated incident response plans that include scenarios for resource exhaustion attacks.

Need more detailed analysis?Get Pro

Technical Details

Data Version
5.1
Assigner Short Name
VulDB
Date Reserved
2025-06-09T06:19:24.886Z
Cvss Version
4.0
State
PUBLISHED

Threat ID: 68487f5b1b0bd07c3938c192

Added to database: 6/10/2025, 6:54:19 PM

Last enriched: 7/10/2025, 10:33:25 PM

Last updated: 8/18/2025, 4:16:15 AM

Views: 16

Actions

PRO

Updates to AI analysis are available only with a Pro account. Contact root@offseq.com for access.

Please log in to the Console to use AI analysis features.

Need enhanced features?

Contact root@offseq.com for Pro access with improved analysis and higher rate limits.

Latest Threats