CVE-2026-26996 | minimatch has a ReDoS via repeated wildcards with non-matching literal in pattern

Exp

minimatch is a minimal matching utility for converting glob expressions into JavaScript RegExp objects. Versions 10.2.0 and below are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) when a glob pattern contains many consecutive * wildcards followed by a literal character that doesn't appear in the test string. Each * compiles to a separate [^/]*? regex group, and when the match fails, V8's regex engine backtracks exponentially across all possible splits. The time complexity is O(4^N) where N is the number of * characters. With N=15, a single minimatch() call takes ~2 seconds. With N=34, it hangs effectively forever. Any application that passes user-controlled strings to minimatch() as the pattern argument is vulnerable to DoS. This issue has been fixed in version 10.2.1.

Published: 2026-02-20 Last update: 2026-03-06 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-26996 is rated Exploit Available (51.1/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). 1 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-2026-26996

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-26996

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 2026-03-21 0.05% 0.02% -0.03%
2 2026-02-26 0.04% 0.05% +0.01%
3 2026-02-20 — 0.04% —

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-26996

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.7 4.0 HIGH
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:N)
No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:N)
No user interaction is required.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:N)
No confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:N)
No integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:H)
High availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:N)
No confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:N)
No integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N)
No availability impact on subsequent systems.
Exploit maturity (threat) (E:X)
Not defined: no reliable threat intelligence; scoring assumes the worst case (equivalent to Attacked).
Confidentiality requirement (CR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Integrity requirement (IR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Availability requirement (AR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Modified attack vector (MAV:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Vector (AV).
Modified attack complexity (MAC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Complexity (AC).
Modified attack requirements (MAT:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Requirements (AT).
Modified privileges required (MPR:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Privileges Required (PR).
Modified user interaction (MUI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base User Interaction (UI).
Modified vulnerable system confidentiality impact (MVC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VC metric.
Modified vulnerable system integrity impact (MVI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VI metric.
Modified vulnerable system availability impact (MVA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VA metric.
Modified subsequent system confidentiality impact (MSC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SC metric.
Modified subsequent system integrity impact (MSI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SI metric.
Modified subsequent system availability impact (MSA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SA metric.
Safety (supplemental) (S:X)
Not evaluated.
Automatable (supplemental) (AU:X)
Not evaluated.
Recovery (supplemental) (R:X)
Not evaluated.
Value density (supplemental) (V:X)
Not evaluated.
Vulnerability response effort (supplemental) (RE:X)
Not evaluated.
Provider urgency (supplemental) (U:X)
Not evaluated.
 — — [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/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]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-26996

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-26996

GHSA-3ppc-4f35-3m26 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: npm — minimatch has a ReDoS via repeated wildcards with non-matching literal in pattern

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-26996

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-26996 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (node-minimatch), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 3, resolved 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-26996
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-26996
suse high CVE-2026-26996 severity important: SUSE including 364 source package names (2.1.3-6.88:glibc-2.38-slfo.1.1_7.1, 2.1.3-6.88:glibc-locale-base-2.38-slfo.1.1_7.1, …), 557 product×package rows across 74 product lines (Container rancher/elemental-channel/sl-micro, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/baremetal-iso-image, … (74 product lines)): Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 158, Fixed 150, First Fixed 18. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-26996/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-26996 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (node-minimatch), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 8. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-26996

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-26996

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
minimatch_project minimatch >= 3.0.0, < 3.1.3 cpe:2.3:a:minimatch_project:minimatch:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
minimatch_project minimatch >= 4.0.0, < 4.2.4 cpe:2.3:a:minimatch_project:minimatch:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
minimatch_project minimatch >= 5.0.0, < 5.1.7 cpe:2.3:a:minimatch_project:minimatch:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
minimatch_project minimatch >= 6.0.0, < 6.2.1 cpe:2.3:a:minimatch_project:minimatch:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
minimatch_project minimatch >= 7.0.0, < 7.4.7 cpe:2.3:a:minimatch_project:minimatch:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
minimatch_project minimatch >= 8.0.0, < 8.0.5 cpe:2.3:a:minimatch_project:minimatch:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
minimatch_project minimatch >= 9.0.0, < 9.0.6 cpe:2.3:a:minimatch_project:minimatch:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
minimatch_project minimatch >= 10.0.0, < 10.2.1 cpe:2.3:a:minimatch_project:minimatch:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*

References for CVE-2026-26996

cvelogic Threat Intelligence