Service interruption via quadratic whitespace trimming
Published Aug 31, 2021 · Updated Aug 3, 2024
Regular expression denial of service in Axios 0.21.1 and earlier allows remote attackers to interrupt applications via crafted strings. The exported utils.trim helper applies an end-anchored \s* expression that repeatedly backtracks across long whitespace runs when the final character is not whitespace. Exposure requires a consuming application to pass attacker-controlled text, including parsed HTTP response headers, through the helper; successful requests consume excessive CPU and can stall that application.
Summary
What happened
Regular expression denial of service in Axios 0.21.1 and earlier allows remote attackers to interrupt applications via crafted strings. The exported utils.trim helper applies an end-anchored \s* expression that repeatedly backtracks across long whitespace runs when the final character is not whitespace. Exposure requires a consuming application to pass attacker-controlled text, including parsed HTTP response headers, through the helper; successful requests consume excessive CPU and can stall that application.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2021-3749
- Published
- Aug 31, 2021
- Updated
- Aug 3, 2024
- Vendor
- Axios
- Product
- Axios
- Classifications
- CWE-1333, CWE-400, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 31, 2021CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 3, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=unspecified <=0.21.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Axios Regular Expression Denial of Service proof of conceptproof of concept · unverified
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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