Vulnerability · Published Sep 29, 2026 · Assigned by redhat
CVE-2026-102473Dash: dash: super-polynomial backtracking in pmatch when libc fnmatch is disabled
Medium 5.5
In plain English
A medium-severity regular-expression denial of service in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 from Red Hat. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.1% (higher than 1% of all known vulnerabilities).
Severity (CVSS 3.1)5.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.1%top 99.1% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known
Official description
A flaw was found in dash. When built without libc fnmatch, the internal pmatch() matcher implements * by unbounded recursion over candidate positions. A local user who can plant filenames, or otherwise feed that matcher, can make a short multi-star pattern such as *.*.*.*.*.tar.gz consume excessive CPU.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | dash | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-102473 |
| Debian:13 | dash | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-102473 |
| Debian:14 | dash | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-102473 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | dash | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-102473 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | dash | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-102473 |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | dash | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-102473 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | dash | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-102473 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | see references |
Weakness: CWE-1333 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
References
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-102473 vdb-entry, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2543005 issue-tracking, x_refsource_REDHAT