The pcre_compile function in pcre_compile.c in PCRE before 8.38 mishandles certain [: nesting, which allows remote attackers to cause a den…

published 2015-12-02 10y ago modified 2026-06-17 4mo ago also EUVD-2015-8273

cvss: 9.8; version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 6.4%; EPSS 6.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 93%
public exploits: 0; none known

The pcre_compile function in pcre_compile.c in PCRE before 8.38 mishandles certain [: nesting, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted regular expression, as demonstrated by a JavaScript RegExp object encountered by Konqueror.

Patch / fix

fixed in 2 distros 4

pcre pcre 8.38
php php 5.5.32, 5.6.18, 7.0.3

debian ubuntu red hat suse

pcre3 Debian 12 2:8.38-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2015-8391

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

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2015-8391

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-2016:2750 RHSA-2016:1132 RHSA-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-2016:3161-1 SUSE-SU-2016:2971-1

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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-2015-8391 updated 2026-11-05 cvss 4.3

pcre: inefficient posix character class syntax check (8.38/16)

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 productsfewer

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, glib2 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 productsfewer

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

6.40% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 93% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	3.1	9.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	2.0	9.0	AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:C

Classification

Weakness

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

Technology feeds

PHP rss critical rss

References

access.redhat.com /errata/RHSA-2016:1132
vendor-advisory, third-party-advisory
rhn.redhat.com /errata/RHSA-2016-1025.html
vendor-advisory, third-party-advisory
rhn.redhat.com /errata/RHSA-2016-2750.html
vendor-advisory, third-party-advisory
lists.fedoraproject.org /pipermail/package-announce/2016-January/174931.html
vendor-advisory, mailing-list, third-party-advisory
security.gentoo.org /glsa/201607-02
vendor-advisory, third-party-advisory
openwall.com /lists/oss-security/2015/11/29/1
mailing-list, third-party-advisory
securityfocus.com /bid/82990
vdb-entry, third-party-advisory
oracle.com /technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinapr2016-2952096.html
third-party-advisory
www-01.ibm.com /support/docview.wss?uid=isg3T1023886
third-party-advisory
h20566.www2.hpe.com /portal/site/hpsc/public/kb/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-c05240731
third-party-advisory
bto.bluecoat.com /security-advisory/sa128
permissions-required
vcs.pcre.org /pcre/code/trunk/ChangeLog?view=markup
broken-link
security.netapp.com /advisory/ntap-20230216-0002/

Sources

CVE List CVE-2015-8391
NVD CVE-2015-8391

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.