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FedoraOperating system · Fedoraproject

CVE-2015-8390

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2015-12-02
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.5.32 / 5.6.18 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the [: and \\ substrings in character classes, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (uninitialized memory read) 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 confidence

PCRE before 8.38 contains a flaw in character class parsing where the [: and \\ substrings are mishandled, causing an uninitialized memory read. This can be triggered via crafted regular expressions (e.g., JavaScript RegExp objects), leading to denial of service or potentially other unspecified impact.

MitigationUpgrade PCRE library to version 8.38 or later. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, implement input validation to reject malformed character class expressions in regular expressions.

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
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 22
PHPApplication
Affected:>= 5.5.0, < 5.5.32>= 5.6.0, < 5.6.18>= 7.0.0, < 7.0.3
Perl Compatible Regular Expression LibraryApplication
Affected:<= 8.37

CVSS 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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed PCRE library version
    Run `pcre-config --version` or check the library file with `ls -la /usr/lib/libpcre*` and examine the version embedded in the filename, or use `strings /usr/lib/libpcre.so.0 | grep "^8\."` to find version info
    Affected if The PCRE version is 8.37 or lower
  2. Identify PHP version if present
    Run `php -v` to get the PHP interpreter version, or check `phpinfo()` output
    Affected if PHP version is 5.5.0-5.5.31, 5.6.0-5.6.17, or 7.0.0-7.0.2
  3. Check Fedora version if applicable
    Run `cat /etc/fedora-release` or `cat /etc/redhat-release`
    Affected if Running Fedora 22 exactly
  4. Determine if application uses PCRE regex processing
    Search codebase for usage of PCRE functions (pcre_compile, preg_match, preg_match_all) or examine application dependencies for PCRE library linking
    Affected if Application uses PCRE-based regular expression processing and the underlying PCRE version is <= 8.37 or the PHP version falls within the affected ranges above

You are affected if your PCRE library version is 8.37 or lower, or if you run PHP 5.5.x before 5.5.32, PHP 5.6.x before 5.6.18, or PHP 7.0.x before 7.0.3, AND your application processes regular expressions with character classes containing [: sequences.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.5.32 / 5.6.18 / 7.0.3 or later
Fixed in 5.5.325.6.187.0.3
Interim mitigation

Upgrade PCRE library to version 8.38 or later. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, implement input validation to reject malformed character class expressions in regular expressions.

Recommended fix High confidence

PCRE 8.38 or later; alternatively PHP 5.5.32+/5.6.18+/7.0.3+

  1. Identify the PCRE library version in use by running 'pcre-config --version' or checking your application's dependencies
  2. If using PCRE directly, upgrade to PCRE version 8.38 or later
  3. If using PHP, upgrade to PHP 5.5.32 or later, PHP 5.6.18 or later, or PHP 7.0.3 or later which include the fixed PCRE library
  4. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the PCRE version again
  5. Test applications that rely on regular expressions to ensure functionality is not affected
Caveat PCRE minor version upgrades are typically backward compatible but may have subtle regex behavioral changes - test regex-dependent functionality

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Fedora Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,600.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2015-8390 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data