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high 7.5

CVE-2019-20838 json

libpcre in PCRE before 8.43 allows a subject buffer over-read in JIT when UTF is disabled, and \X or \R has more than one fixed quantifier,…

published 6y ago modified last mo. also EUVD-2019-11375 , JLSEC-2026-176

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.8%
EPSS 2.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 86%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

libpcre in PCRE before 8.43 allows a subject buffer over-read in JIT when UTF is disabled, and \X or \R has more than one fixed quantifier, a related issue to CVE-2019-20454.

Patch / fix

  • julia PCRE_jll 8.44.0+0
  • pcre pcre 8.43
  • splunk universal_forwarder 8.2.12, 9.0.6
  • apple macos 11.0.1
  • pcre3 Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 2:8.39-9ubuntu0.1
  • pcre3 Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 2:8.39-12ubuntu0.1
  • pcre3 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 2:8.39-13ubuntu0.22.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-20838

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

  • jbcs-httpd24-apr jboss core services 1 1.6.3-107.jbcs.el7
  • jbcs-httpd24-apr jboss core services 1 1.6.3-107.el8jbcs
  • jbcs-httpd24-curl jboss core services 1 7.78.0-2.jbcs.el7
  • jbcs-httpd24-curl jboss core services 1 7.78.0-2.el8jbcs
  • jbcs-httpd24-httpd jboss core services 1 2.4.37-78.jbcs.el7
  • jbcs-httpd24-httpd jboss core services 1 2.4.37-78.el8jbcs
  • jbcs-httpd24-mod_jk jboss core services 1 1.2.48-20.redhat_1.jbcs.el7
  • jbcs-httpd24-mod_jk jboss core services 1 1.2.48-20.redhat_1.el8jbcs

red hat advisories RHSA-2021:4614RHSA-2021:4373

  • pcre SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +15 more 8.45-8.7.1
  • selinux-policy SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +11 more 20140730-36.5.2
  • pcre SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP2, SLE Micro 5.1 +1 more 8.45-20.10.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2021:3652-1SUSE-SU-2021:3529-1

  • pcre openSUSE Leap 15.2 8.45-lp152.7.6.1
  • pcre openSUSE Leap 15.3 8.45-20.10.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2021:1441-1openSUSE-SU-2021:3529-1

  • pcre AlmaLinux 8 8.42-6.el8
  • pcre-cpp AlmaLinux 8 8.42-6.el8
  • pcre-utf16 AlmaLinux 8 8.42-6.el8
  • pcre-utf32 AlmaLinux 8 8.42-6.el8

almalinux advisories ALSA-2021:4373

  • pcre Rocky Linux 8 8.42-6.el8

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2021:4373

Is CVE-2019-20838 in your dependencies? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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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-2019-20838 updated cvss 7.5

pcre: Buffer over-read in JIT when UTF is disabled and \X or \R has fixed quantifier greater than 1

  • Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2 rhacm2/management-ingress-rhel8
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Do not use more than one fixed quantifier with \R or \X with UTF disabled in PCRE or PCRE2, as these are the conditions needed to trigger the flaw.”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) pcre-static 8.42-6.el8, pcre-debuginfo 8.42-6.el8, pcre-debugsource 8.42-6.el8, pcre-cpp-debuginfo 8.42-6.el8, pcre-tools-debuginfo 8.42-6.el8, pcre-utf16-debuginfo 8.42-6.el8, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) pcre 8.42-6.el8, pcre-cpp 8.42-6.el8, pcre-utf16 8.42-6.el8, pcre-utf32 8.42-6.el8
    fixed: vendor fix “Do not use more than one fixed quantifier with \R or \X with UTF disabled in PCRE or PCRE2, as these are the conditions needed to trigger the flaw.” RHSA-2021:4373
  • Red Hat JBoss Core Services
    fixed: vendor fix “Do not use more than one fixed quantifier with \R or \X with UTF disabled in PCRE or PCRE2, as these are the conditions needed to trigger the flaw.” RHSA-2021:4613
  • Red Hat JBoss Core Services on RHEL 7 Server jbcs-httpd24-apr 1.6.3-107.jbcs.el7, jbcs-httpd24-curl 7.78.0-2.jbcs.el7, jbcs-httpd24-httpd 2.4.37-78.jbcs.el7, jbcs-httpd24-mod_md 2.0.8-40.jbcs.el7, jbcs-httpd24-libcurl 7.78.0-2.jbcs.el7, jbcs-httpd24-openssl 1.1.1g-8.jbcs.el7, +26 more Red Hat JBoss Core Services on RHEL 8 jbcs-httpd24-apr 1.6.3-107.el8jbcs, jbcs-httpd24-curl 7.78.0-2.el8jbcs, jbcs-httpd24-httpd 2.4.37-78.el8jbcs, jbcs-httpd24-mod_md 2.0.8-40.el8jbcs, jbcs-httpd24-libcurl 7.78.0-2.el8jbcs, jbcs-httpd24-openssl 1.1.1g-8.el8jbcs, +26 more
    fixed: vendor fix “Do not use more than one fixed quantifier with \R or \X with UTF disabled in PCRE or PCRE2, as these are the conditions needed to trigger the flaw.” RHSA-2021:4614
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 pcre Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 pcre, pcre-tools
    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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
last mo.

Exploit prediction

2.84% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 86% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
OSV 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
julia PCRE_jll
<8.44.0+0
8.44.0+0

Classification

Weakness

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.