CVE-2025-69873 is a low-severity (CVSS 2.9) CWE-1333 vulnerability in ajv. A fix is available for ajv — see the affected versions and patch details below.
ajv has ReDoS when using `$data` option
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.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2025-69873.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2025-69873 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,166 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
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.
ajvnpmDescription
ajv (Another JSON Schema Validator) before 8.18.0 is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) when the $data option is enabled. The pattern keyword accepts runtime data via JSON Pointer syntax ($data reference), which is passed directly to the JavaScript RegExp() constructor without validation. An attacker can inject a malicious regex pattern (e.g., "^(a|a)*$") combined with crafted input to cause catastrophic backtracking. A 31-character payload causes approximately 44 seconds of CPU blocking, with each additional character doubling execution time. This enables complete denial of service with a single HTTP request against any API using ajv with $data: true for dynamic schema validation. This issue is also fixed in version 6.14.0.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | ajv | ≥ 7.0.0-alpha.0&&< 8.18.0 | 8.18.0npm install ajv@8.18.0 |
| 📦npm | ajv | all versions | 6.14.0npm install ajv@6.14.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for ajv, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update ajv to 8.18.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-69873 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2025-69873 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2025-69873. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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.
To exploit this issue, the $data option must be enabled and the attacker needs to be able to send a payload with a specially crafted regular expression to the application processing the input. A 31-character payload causes approximately 44 seconds of execution, with each additional character doubling the execution…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 8 | automation-gateway-0:2.5.20260422-2.el8ap | RHSA-2026:13512 |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 for RHEL 9 | automation-platform-ui-0:2.6.7-1.el9ap | RHSA-2026:6277 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.3 EUS for RHEL 7 | eap7-wildfly-0:7.3.18-3.GA_redhat_00001.1.el7eap | RHSA-2026:33371 |
| Network Observability (NETOBSERV) 1.11.0 | network-observability/network-observability-console-plugin-compat-rhel9:1778508956 | RHSA-2026:16874 |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 | ansible-automation-platform-26/gateway-rhel9:1774243862 | RHSA-2026:6309 |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 | ansible-automation-platform-26/gateway-rhel9:1774243862 | RHSA-2026:6404 |
| Red Hat Developer Hub 1.8 | rhdh/rhdh-hub-rhel9:1776784286 | RHSA-2026:9742 |
| Red Hat Developer Hub 1.9 | rhdh/rhdh-hub-rhel9:1775140647 | RHSA-2026:6802 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-69873 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2025-69873 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.