CVE-2015-8392
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 certain instances of the (?| substring, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (unintended recursion and buffer overflow) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted regular expression, as demonstrated by a JavaScript RegExp object encountered by Konqueror, a related issue to CVE-2015-8384 and CVE-2015-8395.
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 confidencePCRE library before version 8.38 contains a flaw in handling the (?| branch reset group substring in regular expressions. When processing certain crafted regex patterns (such as those potentially passed through JavaScript RegExp objects), the parser can trigger unintended recursion leading to buffer overflow. This can cause denial of service or potentially allow 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<= 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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Determine installed PCRE library versionRun 'pcre-config --version' or 'pcregrep --version' from command line, or check via package manager (dpkg -l libpcre*, rpm -qa pcre*, brew info pcre)Affected if Version returned is 8.37 or lower, or version cannot be determined (older installation)
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Identify applications linked to PCREUse 'ldd <executable>' on suspected applications or 'ldconfig -p | grep pcre' to list PCRE-linked binariesAffected if Any application is linked to a PCRE library version 8.37 or lower
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Check for regex pattern processingReview application code or configuration for usage of PCRE functions (pcre_compile, pcre_exec) or RegExp objects that accept user inputAffected if Application accepts user-supplied regex patterns without sanitization
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Inspect for branch reset group syntaxSearch application inputs, logs, or test cases for regex patterns containing (?| syntaxAffected if Patterns containing (?| branch reset groups are processed by vulnerable PCRE versions
Environment is affected if PCRE library version 8.37 or lower is installed AND applications process regex patterns containing the (?| branch reset group syntax.
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 dataUpdate PCRE library to version 8.38 or later to patch the vulnerability. Review all applications that use PCRE for regex processing, particularly those accepting user-supplied regex patterns, and test thoroughly after the update.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,160.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-8392 — 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-2015-8392 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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- 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
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