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CVE-2015-8387· NVD / CVE Program· CNA mitre

PCRE before 8.38 mishandles (?123) subroutine calls and related subroutine calls, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service

PCRE before 8.38 mishandles (?123) subroutine calls and related subroutine calls, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (integer overflow) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted regular expression, as demonstrated by a JavaScript RegExp object encountered by Konqueror.

HighCVSS 7.3 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available
Published
Dec 1, 2015
Updated
Jun 16, 2026
EPSS
3.6% · 89th percentile
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Report tools

JSON

Action score

30

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
29 / 40 · 7.3 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
1 / 30 · 3.6%

Affected systems

VendorProduct
pcreperl compatible regular expression library
fedoraprojectfedora
phpphp

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • php php5.5.0 and later · before 5.5.32
  • php php5.6.0 and later · before 5.6.18
  • php php7.0.0 and later · before 7.0.3

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Debian:12pcre3before 2:8.38-12:8.38-1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP1pcrebefore 8.39-5.18.39-5.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP1pcrebefore 8.39-7.18.39-7.1

Same product

pcre: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2015-8386PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the interaction of lookbehind assertions and mutually recursive subpatterns, which allows remote attackers to ca
    41Plan
  • CVE-2015-8383PCRE before 8.38 mishandles certain repeated conditional groups, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (buffer overflow
    41Plan
  • CVE-2015-8394PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the (?(<digits>) and (?(R<digits>) conditions, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (integ
    40Plan
  • CVE-2015-8390PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the [: and \\ substrings in character classes, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (unini
    40Plan
  • CVE-2015-8389PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the /(?:|a|){100}x/ pattern and related patterns, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (in
    40Plan
  • CVE-2015-8388PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the /(?=di(?<=(?1))|(?=(.))))/ pattern and related patterns with an unmatched closing parenthesis, which allows
    32Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
debian:pcre32:8.38-1 · Debian:12Package registry (OSV)
suse:pcre8.39-5.1 · SUSE:Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP1Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
  • No account or password is required.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
low · data can be read
Integrity
low · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
low · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
Low
Integrity impact
Low
Availability impact
Low

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-190 · Integer Overflow or Wraparound

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

nvd-primary

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

ATT&CK techniques

—

Noroxi analysis

No Noroxi analysis for this record yet

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Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

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References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records