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VulnerabilityPublished

CVE-2026-49485: org.hl7.fhir.core · ReDoS via FHIRPath matches()/replaceMatches() in FHIR Validator HTTP Endpoint

Affects ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.dstu2Source GCVE Database

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High : upgrade to 6.9.4.2 soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:05 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
7.5High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 52% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch
Available – fixed in 6.9.4.2
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 17 Jul 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponised: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq 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.

What to do

Upgrade ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.dstu2 and ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.dstu2016may and ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.dstu3 and ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.r4 and ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.r4b and ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.r5 and ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.validation and ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.validation.cli to 6.9.4.2.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
Mavenca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.dstu2Affected
  • <6.9.4.2
Fixed in
  • 6.9.4.2
Mavenca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.dstu2016mayAffected
  • <6.9.4.2
Fixed in
  • 6.9.4.2
Mavenca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.dstu3Affected
  • <6.9.4.2
Fixed in
  • 6.9.4.2
Mavenca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.r4Affected
  • <6.9.4.2
Fixed in
  • 6.9.4.2
Mavenca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.r4bAffected
  • <6.9.4.2
Fixed in
  • 6.9.4.2
Mavenca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.r5Affected
  • <6.9.4.2
Fixed in
  • 6.9.4.2

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

This vulnerability is fixed in HAPI FHIR versions 6.9.4.2 and 6.9.9. Users should upgrade to at least one of these versions to remediate the issue. No other mitigation or workaround is indicated by the vendor advisory. Patch status is confirmed by the vendor advisory.

Description

A vulnerability in HAPI FHIR's org.hl7.fhir.core module allows denial of service via inefficient regular expression evaluation. Versions prior to 6.9.4.2 and between 6.9.5 and before 6.9.9 accept arbitrary FHIRPath expressions without sufficient input validation. The matches(), matchesFull(), and replaceMatches() functions pass user-controlled regex patterns to Java's Pattern.compile() and String.replaceAll() with an incomplete timeout mechanism, enabling catastrophic backtracking and CPU exhaustion. This issue is fixed in versions 6.9.9 and 6.9.4.2.

References

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