How severe is CVE-2025-5889?

No CVSS score has been assigned to CVE-2025-5889 yet. Review the advisory details and affected package list to assess your exposure.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2025-5889?

CVE-2025-5889 affects the following packages: brace-expansion (npm), brace-expansion (npm), brace-expansion (npm), brace-expansion (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix CVE-2025-5889?

Update brace-expansion to 2.0.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-5889 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2025-5889 in my npm dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for brace-expansion, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2025-5889 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.

Is CVE-2025-5889 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2025-5889 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2025-5889?

CVE-2025-5889 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.6%, placing it in the 50th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2025-5889?

CVE-2025-5889 is classified as Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400), CWE-1333 (CWE-1333). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2025-5889 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2025-5889 was published on June 9, 2025 and was last updated on October 28, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

CVE-2025-5889: brace-expansion

Exploitation Status

Proof-of-concept exploit code exists

CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2025-5889.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk+0.03%

Lower risk than most CVEs50th percentile — riskier than 50% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

Real-World Exposure

4 pkgs affected

How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.

3Kother npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream

brace-expansionnpm

816.5Mdownloads / week

Description

A vulnerability was found in juliangruber brace-expansion up to 1.1.11/2.0.1/3.0.0/4.0.0. It has been rated as problematic. Affected by this issue is the function expand of the file index.js. The manipulation leads to inefficient regular expression complexity. The attack may be launched remotely. The complexity of an attack is rather high. The exploitation is known to be difficult. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. Upgrading to version 1.1.12, 2.0.2, 3.0.1 and 4.0.1 is able to address this issue. The name of the patch is a5b98a4f30d7813266b221435e1eaaf25a1b0ac5. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Affected Packages

4 total 4 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`brace-expansion`	≥ 2.0.0&&< 2.0.2	2.0.2`npm install brace-expansion@2.0.2`
📦npm	`brace-expansion`	≥ 1.0.0&&< 1.1.12	1.1.12`npm install brace-expansion@1.1.12`
📦npm	`brace-expansion`	≥ 3.0.0&&< 3.0.1	3.0.1`npm install brace-expansion@3.0.1`
📦npm	`brace-expansion`	≥ 4.0.0&&< 4.0.1	4.0.1`npm install brace-expansion@4.0.1`

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for brace-expansion, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update brace-expansion to 2.0.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-5889 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.

Fixing This On Your OS

If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.

Red HatLow

Product	Fixed in	Advisory
Red Hat Ceph Storage 7.1	`rhceph/rhceph-7-rhel9:1781863705`	RHSA-2026:33154
Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4.14	`odf4/cephcsi-rhel9:v4.14-1764178221`	RHSA-2025:22420
Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4.15	`odf4/cephcsi-rhel9:v4.15-1764176261`	RHSA-2025:22418
Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4.16	`odf4/cephcsi-rhel9:v4.16-1764168955`	RHSA-2025:22416
Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4.17	`odf4/cephcsi-rhel9:v4.17-1764167834`	RHSA-2025:22415
Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4.18	`odf4/cephcsi-rhel9:v4.18-1761854289`	RHSA-2025:21368
Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4.19	`odf4/cephcsi-rhel9:v4.19-1761844221`	RHSA-2025:21378
Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4.20	`odf4/cephcsi-rhel9:v4.20-1761848902`	RHSA-2025:21704

Frequently Asked Questions

A vulnerability was found in juliangruber brace-expansion up to 1.1.11/2.0.1/3.0.0/4.0.0. It has been rated as problematic. Affected by this issue is the function expand of the file index.js. The manipulation leads to inefficient regular expression complexity. The attack may be launched remotely. The complexity of an attack is rather high. The exploitation is known to be difficult. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. Upgrading to version 1.1.12, 2.0.2, 3.0.1 and 4.0.1 is able to address this issue. The name of the patch is a5b98a4f30d7813266b221435e1eaaf25a1b0ac5. It

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2025-5889 — brace-expansion