CVE-2015-8381

Exp

The compile_regex function in pcre_compile.c in PCRE before 8.38 and pcre2_compile.c in PCRE2 before 10.2x mishandles the /(?J:(?|(:(?|(?'R')(\k'R')|((?'R')))H'Rk'Rf)|s(?'R'))))/ and /(?J:(?|(:(?|(?'R')(\z(?|(?'R')(\k'R')|((?'R')))k'R')|((?'R')))H'Ak'Rf)|s(?'R')))/ patterns, and related patterns with certain group references, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (heap-based buffer overflow) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted regular expression, as demonstrated by a JavaScript RegExp object encountered by Konqueror.

Published: 2015-12-02 Last update: 2026-05-06 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2015-8381 is rated High Exploit Risk (72.8/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 5.80%, 90th percentile). 3 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2015-8381

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2015-8381

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 2026-03-23 9.66% 5.80% -3.85%
2 2026-03-10 10.59% 9.66% -0.93%
3 2025-12-07 — 10.59% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2015-8381

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2015-8381

OS Trackers for CVE-2015-8381

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2015-8381 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (pcre3), 2 status rows across 2 suites (bookworm, bullseye): resolved 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2015-8381
gentoo normal CVE-2015-8381: 1 GLSA(s) (201607-02), 1 atom(s) (dev-libs/libpcre); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2015-8381
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-8381
suse medium CVE-2015-8381 severity moderate: SUSE including 34 source package names (0.9.1:libpcre1-8.39-7.1, 1.0.0:libpcre1-8.39-7.1, …), 126 product×package rows across 63 product lines (Container caasp/v4/default-http-backend, Container caasp/v4/dnsmasq-nanny, … (63 product lines)): Fixed 105, Known Not Affected 21. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-8381/
ubuntu low CVE-2015-8381 low priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (pcre2, pcre3), 16 status rows across 8 suites (precise, trusty, upstream, vivid, wily, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 8, DNE 4, released 3, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2015-8381

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2015-8381

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
pcre perl_compatible_regular_expression_library <= 8.37 cpe:2.3:a:pcre:perl_compatible_regular_expression_library:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2015-8381

cvelogic Threat Intelligence