CVE-2026-27903

HighPublic PoC

Published: 26 February 2026

Published

26 February 2026

Modified

27 February 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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

EPSS Score 0.0004 10.6th percentile

Risk Priority 15 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2026-27903 is a high-severity Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity (CWE-407) vulnerability in Minimatch Project Minimatch. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 10.6th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004).

Threat & Defense Details

Likely Mitigating ControlsAI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

SC-5 Denial-of-service Protection

addresses: CWE-407

Addresses inefficient algorithms whose complexity can be exploited for DoS.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

ReDoS in minimatch directly enables Endpoint Denial of Service via crafted glob input triggering algorithmic complexity exhaustion (T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v18.1

NVD Description

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 3.1.3, `matchOne()` performs unbounded recursive backtracking when a glob pattern contains multiple non-adjacent `**` (GLOBSTAR)…

segments and the input path does not match. The time complexity is O(C(n, k)) -- binomial -- where `n` is the number of path segments and `k` is the number of globstars. With k=11 and n=30, a call to the default `minimatch()` API stalls for roughly 5 seconds. With k=13, it exceeds 15 seconds. No memoization or call budget exists to bound this behavior. Any application where an attacker can influence the glob pattern passed to `minimatch()` is vulnerable. The realistic attack surface includes build tools and task runners that accept user-supplied glob arguments (ESLint, Webpack, Rollup config), multi-tenant systems where one tenant configures glob-based rules that run in a shared process, admin or developer interfaces that accept ignore-rule or filter configuration as globs, and CI/CD pipelines that evaluate user-submitted config files containing glob patterns. An attacker who can place a crafted pattern into any of these paths can stall the Node.js event loop for tens of seconds per invocation. The pattern is 56 bytes for a 5-second stall and does not require authentication in contexts where pattern input is part of the feature. Versions 10.2.3, 9.0.7, 8.0.6, 7.4.8, 6.2.2, 5.1.8, 4.2.5, and 3.1.3 fix the issue.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2026-27903 is a regular expression denial-of-service (ReDoS) vulnerability in minimatch, a minimal matching utility for converting glob expressions into JavaScript RegExp objects. The issue affects minimatch versions prior to 10.2.3, 9.0.7, 8.0.6, 7.4.8, 6.2.2, 5.1.8, 4.2.5, and 3.1.3. Specifically, the `matchOne()` function performs unbounded recursive backtracking when a glob pattern contains multiple non-adjacent `**` (GLOBSTAR) segments and the input path does not match, resulting in O(C(n, k)) binomial time complexity, where n is the number of path segments and k is the number of globstars. For example, with k=11 and n=30, a call to the default `minimatch()` API stalls for roughly 5 seconds, and with k=13, it exceeds 15 seconds, as no memoization or call budget bounds this behavior.

Any application where an attacker can influence the glob pattern passed to minimatch is vulnerable, including build tools and task runners like ESLint, Webpack, and Rollup that accept user-supplied glob arguments; multi-tenant systems where one tenant configures glob-based rules in a shared process; admin or developer interfaces accepting ignore-rule or filter configurations as globs; and CI/CD pipelines evaluating user-submitted config files with glob patterns. An attacker can supply a crafted 56-byte pattern to cause a 5-second stall per invocation, potentially stalling the Node.js event loop for tens of seconds without authentication if pattern input is part of the feature.

The GitHub Security Advisory (GHSA-7r86-cg39-jmmj) confirms that minimatch versions 10.2.3, 9.0.7, 8.0.6, 7.4.8, 6.2.2, 5.1.8, 4.2.5, and 3.1.3 address the issue. Security practitioners should upgrade to these patched versions in affected applications and review dependencies for vulnerable minimatch instances, particularly in Node.js-based tools handling user-controlled globs. The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).