LinuxOperating system · Oracle
CVE-2015-8385
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedPCRE before 8.38 mishandles the /(?|(\k'Pm')|(?'Pm'))/ pattern and related patterns with certain forward references, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (buffer overflow) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted regular expression, as demonstrated by a JavaScript RegExp object encountered by Konqueror.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThis is a buffer overflow vulnerability in PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) versions before 8.38. The flaw occurs when processing regex patterns that use the branch reset feature (?|...) combined with named backreferences (like \k'Pm') and forward references. The PCRE engine incorrectly calculates memory allocation for these pattern constructs, causing a buffer overflow that can lead to denial of service or potentially arbitrary code execution.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
LinuxOperating system
= 7<= 8.37CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed PCRE library versionRun 'pcre-config --version' or check the package version using your system's package manager (e.g., 'rpm -q pcre' on Oracle Linux)Affected if The version returned is 8.37 or earlier (versions before 8.38 are vulnerable)
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Verify Oracle Linux version if applicableRun 'cat /etc/oracle-release' or 'cat /etc/redhat-release' to confirm the Oracle Linux versionAffected if The system is Oracle Linux 7 with a vulnerable PCRE library version
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Identify applications linking against PCREUse 'ldd' on binary executables or check with 'ldconfig -p | grep pcre' to see which applications load the PCRE libraryAffected if Applications are dynamically linked to a vulnerable PCRE library version (8.37 or earlier)
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Inspect regex patterns for vulnerable constructsSearch application source code or configuration files for regex patterns containing '(?|...)' branch reset syntax combined with named backreferences like \k'Pm' or forward referencesAffected if The processed regex patterns use the specific combination of branch reset (?|...) with named backreferences and forward references
You are affected if your system runs PCRE version 8.37 or earlier AND processes regex patterns that combine branch reset (?|...) with named backreferences and forward references.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade PCRE library to version 8.38 or later. Applications and services that link against the PCRE library must be rebuilt to use the patched version. In the meantime, input validation can be applied to reject suspicious regex patterns before processing.
Fix this in Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-8385 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2015-8385 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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