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HIGH

CVE-2026-26996

minimatch has a ReDoS via repeated wildcards with non-matching literal in pattern

CVSS v3

7.5

HIGH

EPSS Score

0.6 %

exploit probability, as of 2026-10-19

CISA KEV

No

known exploited

Exploitation

none

SSVC status

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Affected and fixed versions

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • minimatchnpmall versions · fixed in 3.1.3
  • nodejsAlmaLinux:9all versions · fixed in 1:20.20.2-1.module_el9.7.0+226+88d36870and 2 other packages
  • nodejsAlmaLinux:8all versions · fixed in 1:20.20.2-1.module_el8.10.0+4165+3f200bdaand 3 other packages
  • nodejs-docsAlmaLinux:10all versions · fixed in 1:22.22.2-1.el10_1
  • nodejs-docsAlmaLinux:9all versions · fixed in 1:20.20.2-1.module_el9.7.0+224+0af7cc6b
  • nodejs-libsAlmaLinux:9all versions · fixed in 1:24.14.1-2.module_el9.7.0+222+ef1c61e1
  • nodejs-libsAlmaLinux:8all versions · fixed in 1:24.14.1-2.module_el8.10.0+4160+4819ac42
  • nodejs-nodemonAlmaLinux:9all versions · fixed in 3.0.1-1.module_el9.5.0+125+8dc38870

10 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2026-26996 Red Hat Product Security932 products fixed · 36 known affected

    minimatch: minimatch: Denial of Service via specially crafted glob patterns

    openshift-logging/kibana6-rhel8 as a component of Logging Subsystem for Red Hat OpenShift · openshift-logging/logging-view-plugin-rhel9 as a component of Logging Subsystem for Red Hat OpenShift · workload-availability/node-remediation-console-rhel8 as a component of Node HealthCheck Operator

  • RHSA-2026:83622 Red Hat Product Security68 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation 4.17.28 security, enhancement & bug fix update

  • RHSA-2026:83619 Red Hat Product Security64 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation 4.16.36 security, enhancement & bug fix update

  • RHSA-2026:77316 Red Hat Product Security1 product fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: OpenShift Container Platform 4.12.100 bug fix and security update

  • RHSA-2026:77321 Red Hat Product Security1 product fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: OpenShift Container Platform 4.13.72 bug fix and security update

  • RHSA-2026:65126 Red Hat Product Security23 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: RHOAI 2.25.11 - Red Hat OpenShift AI

42 more advisories

Full record on NVD

Description

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.

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published
2026-02-20
Last Modified
2026-03-06

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-26996?

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.

Is CVE-2026-26996 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2026-26996 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 0.6% on 2026-10-19, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-26996?

CVE-2026-26996 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

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