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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2015-2327 json

PCRE before 8.36 mishandles the /(((a\2)|(a*)\g<-1>))*/ pattern and related patterns with certain internal recursive back references, which…

published 10y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2015-2420

cvss
7.5
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
4.0%
EPSS 4.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 90%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

PCRE before 8.36 mishandles the /(((a\2)|(a*)\g<-1>))*/ pattern and related patterns with certain internal recursive back references, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (segmentation fault) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted regular expression, as demonstrated by a JavaScript RegExp object encountered by Konqueror.

Patch / fix

  • pcre3 Debian 12 2:8.35-7.2

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2015-2327

  • pcre3 Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1:8.31-2ubuntu2.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2015-2327

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • rh-php56 RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.3-1.el6
  • rh-php56 RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.3-1.el7
  • rh-php56-php RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 5.6.25-1.el6
  • rh-php56-php RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 5.6.25-1.el7
  • rh-php56-php-gd RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 5.6.25-1.el6
  • rh-php56-php-gd RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 5.6.25-1.el7
  • rh-php56-php-cli RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 5.6.25-1.el6
  • rh-php56-php-cli RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 5.6.25-1.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2016:2750RHBA-2015:2142

  • pcre SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for SAP 12 +12 more 8.39-7.1
  • pcre SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2 +10 more 8.39-5.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2016:3161-1SUSE-SU-2016:2971-1

Is CVE-2015-2327 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2015-2327 updated cvss 4.3

pcre: infinite recursion compiling pattern with zero-repeated groups that include recursive back reference (8.36/19)

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 glib2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 glib2, glib2-fam, glib2-tests Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Web Server 3 pcre Red Hat Software Collections php54-php, php55-php, php54-php-gd, php55-php-gd, php54-php-cli, php54-php-dba, +44 more
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) pcre 8.32-15.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) pcre-tools 8.32-15.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) pcre 8.32-15.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) pcre-tools 8.32-15.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) pcre 8.32-15.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) pcre-tools 8.32-15.el7
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) pcre 8.32-15.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) pcre-tools 8.32-15.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHBA-2015:2142
  • Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) rh-php56 2.3-1.el6, rh-php56-php 5.6.25-1.el6, rh-php56-runtime 2.3-1.el6, rh-php56-scldevel 2.3-1.el6, rh-php56-php-gd 5.6.25-1.el6, rh-php56-php-cli 5.6.25-1.el6, +26 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) rh-php56 2.3-1.el7, rh-php56-php 5.6.25-1.el7, rh-php56-runtime 2.3-1.el7, rh-php56-scldevel 2.3-1.el7, rh-php56-php-gd 5.6.25-1.el7, rh-php56-php-cli 5.6.25-1.el7, +24 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 6.7) rh-php56 2.3-1.el6, rh-php56-php 5.6.25-1.el6, rh-php56-runtime 2.3-1.el6, rh-php56-scldevel 2.3-1.el6, rh-php56-php-gd 5.6.25-1.el6, rh-php56-php-cli 5.6.25-1.el6, +26 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.2) rh-php56 2.3-1.el7, rh-php56-php 5.6.25-1.el7, rh-php56-runtime 2.3-1.el7, rh-php56-scldevel 2.3-1.el7, rh-php56-php-gd 5.6.25-1.el7, rh-php56-php-cli 5.6.25-1.el7, +24 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.3) rh-php56 2.3-1.el7, rh-php56-php 5.6.25-1.el7, rh-php56-runtime 2.3-1.el7, rh-php56-scldevel 2.3-1.el7, rh-php56-php-gd 5.6.25-1.el7, rh-php56-php-cli 5.6.25-1.el7, +24 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) rh-php56 2.3-1.el6, rh-php56-php 5.6.25-1.el6, rh-php56-runtime 2.3-1.el6, rh-php56-scldevel 2.3-1.el6, rh-php56-php-gd 5.6.25-1.el6, rh-php56-php-cli 5.6.25-1.el6, +26 more
    +1 more products
    Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) rh-php56 2.3-1.el7, rh-php56-php 5.6.25-1.el7, rh-php56-runtime 2.3-1.el7, rh-php56-scldevel 2.3-1.el7, rh-php56-php-gd 5.6.25-1.el7, rh-php56-php-cli 5.6.25-1.el7, +24 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:2750
  • Red Hat Directory Server 8 pcre Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 pcre Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 pcre Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 virtuoso-opensource, virtuoso-opensource-utils Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Web Server 1 httpd Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Web Server 2 jbcs-httpd24, jbcs-httpd24-runtime
    +1 more products
    Red Hat Software Collections rh-mariadb100-mariadb, rh-mariadb101-mariadb, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-test, rh-mariadb101-mariadb-test, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-bench, rh-mariadb101-mariadb-bench, +11 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

4.05% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 90% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • bugs.exim.org https://bugs.exim.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1503 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • vcs.pcre.org http://vcs.pcre.org/pcre/code/trunk/ChangeLog?view=markup referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 7.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.