CVE-2026-26996

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

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: February 20, 2026 at 03:05 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 10:26 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsMinimatchMinimatch

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.6%
SSVC
No known exploit

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.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

10.0.0 ≤ v < 10.2.13.0.0 ≤ v < 3.1.34.0.0 ≤ v < 4.2.45.0.0 ≤ v < 5.1.76.0.0 ≤ v < 6.2.17.0.0 ≤ v < 7.4.78.0.0 ≤ v < 8.0.59.0.0 ≤ v < 9.0.6
v < 10.2.1
Affected range stops below 10.2.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-1333

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