Denial of service via quadratic flag-fragment processing
Published Aug 12, 2026 · Updated Aug 12, 2026
Algorithmic denial of service in Eric Cornelissen Shescape 2.1.11 through 2.1.13 and 3.0.0 allows attackers to exhaust CPU. The compose function repeatedly joins and slices remaining flag fragments inside its protection loop, making processing quadratic in input length. The default-enabled path is reached through escape, escapeAll, quote, or quoteAll when a consuming application accepts large untrusted inputs containing many flag fragments.
Summary
What happened
Algorithmic denial of service in Eric Cornelissen Shescape 2.1.11 through 2.1.13 and 3.0.0 allows attackers to exhaust CPU. The compose function repeatedly joins and slices remaining flag fragments inside its protection loop, making processing quadratic in input length. The default-enabled path is reached through escape, escapeAll, quote, or quoteAll when a consuming application accepts large untrusted inputs containing many flag fragments.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-73413
- Published
- Aug 12, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 12, 2026
- Vendor
- Eric Cornelissen
- Product
- Shescape
- Classifications
- CWE-400, CWE-407, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 12, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 12, 2026Record 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=>= 2.1.11, < 2.1.14
- Affected versionversion=>= 3.0.0, < 3.0.1
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
- Upstream quadratic-runtime demonstrationproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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