CVE-2026-27904: minimatch ReDoS: nested *() extglobs generate catastrophically backtracking regular expressions
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 3.1.4, nested `*()` extglobs produce regexps with nested unbounded quantifiers (e.g. `(?:(?:a|b)*)*`), which exhibit catastrophic backtracking in V8. With a 12-byte pattern `*(*(*(a|b)))` and an 18-byte non-matching input, `minimatch()` stalls for over 7 seconds. Adding a single nesting level or a few input characters pushes this to minutes. This is the most severe finding: it is triggered by the default `minimatch()` API with no special options, and the minimum viable pattern is only 12 bytes. The same issue affects `+()` extglobs equally. Versions 10.2.3, 9.0.7, 8.0.6, 7.4.8, 6.2.2, 5.1.8, 4.2.5, and 3.1.4 fix the issue.
Metrics
- CVSS v3.1
- 7.5
- Severity
- HIGH
- Fixed in
- —
- Affected Products
- 1
- isaacs / minimatch>= 10.0.0, < 10.2.3 · >= 9.0.0, < 9.0.7 · >= 8.0.0, < 8.0.6 · >= 7.0.0, < 7.4.8 · >= 6.0.0, < 6.2.2 · >= 5.0.0, < 5.1.8
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H