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Fencer Intel
critical 9.1

CVE-2015-5073 json

Heap-based buffer overflow in the find_fixedlength function in pcre_compile.c in PCRE before 8.38 allows remote attackers to cause a denial…

published 2016-12-13 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2015-5089

cvss
9.1
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
7.7%
EPSS 7.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 94%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Heap-based buffer overflow in the find_fixedlength function in pcre_compile.c in PCRE before 8.38 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) or obtain sensitive information from heap memory and possibly bypass the ASLR protection mechanism via a crafted regular expression with an excess closing parenthesis.

Patch / fix

  • pcre3 Debian 12 2:8.35-7

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2015-5073

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

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2015-5073

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-2016:2750RHSA-2016:1132RHSA-2016:1025

  • 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

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-2015-5073 updated cvss 4.3

pcre: buffer overflow for forward reference within backward assertion with excess closing parenthesis (8.38/18)

  • 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_2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) pcre-tools 8.32-15.el7_2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) pcre 8.32-15.el7_2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) pcre-tools 8.32-15.el7_2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) pcre 8.32-15.el7_2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) pcre-tools 8.32-15.el7_2.1
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) pcre 8.32-15.el7_2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) pcre-tools 8.32-15.el7_2.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1025
  • 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, +34 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, +32 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 6.6) rh-mariadb100-mariadb 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-test 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-bench 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-common 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-config 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-errmsg 10.0.25-4.el6, +2 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, +34 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.1) rh-mariadb100-mariadb 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-test 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-bench 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-common 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-config 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-errmsg 10.0.25-4.el7, +2 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, +32 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1132
  • 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
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:2750
  • 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, +34 more 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, +32 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1132
  • 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-mariadb101-mariadb, rh-mariadb101-mariadb-test, rh-mariadb101-mariadb-bench, rh-mariadb101-mariadb-common, rh-mariadb101-mariadb-config, rh-mariadb101-mariadb-errmsg, +3 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

7.67% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 94% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • bugs.exim.org https://bugs.exim.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1651 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • vcs.pcre.org http://vcs.pcre.org/pcre?view=revision&revision=1571 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 9.1 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.4 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer
  • CWE-200 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

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.