Authenticated service interruption via catastrophic regex backtracking
Published Apr 19, 2025 · Updated Aug 27, 2025
Regular-expression denial of service in Connections Pro WP-Syntax 1.2 and earlier allows remote authenticated users to interrupt service. The beforeFilter method passes the full post body to preg_replace_callback with repeated pre-tag attribute alternatives and an unbounded body capture, causing catastrophic backtracking on many unmatched opening tags. An Author-level account must first publish the crafted post; concurrent requests to that page then consume a CPU core per request for several seconds.
Summary
What happened
Regular-expression denial of service in Connections Pro WP-Syntax 1.2 and earlier allows remote authenticated users to interrupt service. The beforeFilter method passes the full post body to preg_replace_callback with repeated pre-tag attribute alternatives and an unbounded body capture, causing catastrophic backtracking on many unmatched opening tags. An Author-level account must first publish the crafted post; concurrent requests to that page then consume a CPU core per request for several seconds.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-13926
- Published
- Apr 19, 2025
- Updated
- Aug 27, 2025
- Vendor
- Connections Pro
- Product
- WP-Syntax
- Classifications
- CWE-1333, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Apr 19, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 27, 2025Record 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=0 <=1.2
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
- WPScan ReDoS proof of conceptfunctional · validated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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