CVE-2014-6438

The URI.decode_www_form_component method in Ruby before 1.9.2-p330 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (catastrophic regular expression backtracking, resource consumption, or application crash) via a crafted string.

Published: 2017-09-06 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2014-6438 is rated Moderate Risk (64.4/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 4.13%). EPSS rose +3.05% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2014-6438

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 1.08% 4.13% +3.05%
2 2025-07-12 1.15% 1.08% -0.07%
3 2025-06-04 — 1.15% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2014-6438

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2014-6438

OS Trackers for CVE-2014-6438

vendor priority summary link
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2014-6438
ubuntu low CVE-2014-6438 low priority: Ubuntu including 7 source packages (ruby1.8, ruby1.9, …), 64 status rows across 10 suites (maverick, precise, trusty, upstream, utopic, vivid, wily, xenial, yakkety, zesty): DNE 45, not-affected 14, needs-triage 3, ignored 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2014-6438

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2014-6438

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
ruby-lang ruby <= 1.9.2 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2014-6438

cvelogic Threat Intelligence