Description
Perl-Compatible Regular Expression (PCRE) library before 6.2 does not properly count the number of named capturing subpatterns, which allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a regular expression with a large number of named subpatterns, which triggers a buffer overflow. NOTE: this issue was originally subsumed by CVE-2006-7224, but that CVE has been REJECTED and split.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 12 | pcre3 | 6.2-1 | — |
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 5 | pcre +1 | 6.6-2.el5_1.1 | RHSA-2007:1052 |
| RHEL 4 | pcre +1 | 4.5-4.el4_5.4 | RHSA-2007:1052 |
Advisories 1
- RHSA-2007:1052 Red Hat Security Advisory: pcre security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Jun 26, 2026
References
- http://support.avaya.com/elmodocs2/security/ASA-2007-493.htm
- MDVSA-2008:030 vendor-advisory
- SUSE-SA:2008:004 vendor-advisory
- 28658 third-party-advisory
- 27773 third-party-advisory
- 26462 vdb-entry
- RHSA-2007:1052 vendor-advisory
- SUSE-SA:2007:062 vendor-advisory
- http://www.pcre.org/changelog.txt
- 27869 third-party-advisory
- oval:org.mitre.oval:def:11615 vdb-entry signature
- 27582 third-party-advisory
- http://scary.beasts.org/security/CESA-2007-006.html