CVE-2025-5897 is a vulnerability identified in the vuejs vue-cli tool, specifically affecting versions 5.0.0 through 5.0.8. The flaw resides in the HtmlPwaPlugin component, within the Markdown Code Handler functionality, located in the file packages/@vue/cli-plugin-pwa/lib/HtmlPwaPlugin.js. The vulnerability is caused by inefficient regular expression complexity, which can be exploited remotely without requiring user interaction or elevated privileges. This inefficiency in regex processing can lead to excessive CPU consumption, potentially resulting in a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. An attacker can craft malicious input that triggers the complex regex evaluation, causing the system running vue-cli to become unresponsive or significantly degraded in performance. The CVSS 4.0 base score is 5.3, indicating a medium severity level. The attack vector is network-based (AV:N), with low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:L), and no user interaction needed (UI:N). The vulnerability does not impact confidentiality, integrity, or availability directly but leads to resource exhaustion (VA:L). No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches have been linked yet. This vulnerability is particularly relevant to development environments and build pipelines that use vue-cli for progressive web app (PWA) plugin integration, especially where Markdown content is processed dynamically or from untrusted sources.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-5897 primarily concerns the stability and availability of development and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) environments that utilize vue-cli versions up to 5.0.8. Organizations relying on vue-cli for building Vue.js applications, especially those integrating PWA features with Markdown content, may experience service disruptions or delays due to resource exhaustion caused by maliciously crafted inputs. This can lead to slowed development cycles, delayed deployments, and potential downtime of build servers. While the vulnerability does not directly compromise data confidentiality or integrity, the denial-of-service aspect can indirectly affect business operations, particularly for companies with tight release schedules or those offering real-time application updates. Given the widespread adoption of Vue.js and vue-cli in European tech sectors, including startups and enterprises in software development, e-commerce, and digital services, the vulnerability poses a moderate operational risk. Additionally, organizations in regulated industries with strict uptime and availability requirements may face compliance challenges if this vulnerability is exploited.

To mitigate CVE-2025-5897, European organizations should: 1) Immediately audit their development and build environments to identify usage of vue-cli versions 5.0.0 through 5.0.8, particularly where the PWA plugin and Markdown processing are enabled. 2) Apply updates or patches as soon as they become available from the vuejs maintainers; if no official patch exists yet, consider temporarily disabling the HtmlPwaPlugin or the Markdown Code Handler functionality to prevent processing of untrusted Markdown inputs. 3) Implement input validation and sanitization for any Markdown content processed during builds to reduce the risk of malicious payloads triggering the regex complexity issue. 4) Monitor build server resource utilization and set thresholds to detect abnormal CPU spikes that may indicate exploitation attempts. 5) Restrict network access to build servers to trusted sources only, minimizing exposure to remote attacks. 6) Incorporate vulnerability scanning and dependency checks into CI/CD pipelines to detect vulnerable vue-cli versions proactively. 7) Educate development teams about the risks of processing untrusted content in build tools and encourage best practices for secure build configurations.