CVE-2026-27904
HIGHCVE-2026-27904 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-1333 vulnerability in minimatch. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2026-27904 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
minimatch ReDoS: nested *() extglobs generate catastrophically backtracking regular expressions
Blast Radius
Weekly download volume for affected packages — a proxy for how broadly this vulnerability is deployed.
minimatchnpmDescription
minimatch is a minimal matching utility for converting glob expressions into JavaScript RegExp objects. Prior to version 10.2.3, 9.0.7, 8.0.6, 7.4.8, 6.2.2, 5.1.8, 4.2.5, and 3.1.4, nested *() extglobs produce regexps with nested unbounded quantifiers (e.g. (?:(?:a|b)*)*), which exhibit catastrophic backtracking in V8. With a 12-byte pattern *(*(*(a|b))) and an 18-byte non-matching input, minimatch() stalls for over 7 seconds. Adding a single nesting level or a few input characters pushes this to minutes. This is the most severe finding: it is triggered by the default minimatch() API with no special options, and the minimum viable pattern is only 12 bytes. The same issue affects +() extglobs equally. Versions 10.2.3, 9.0.7, 8.0.6, 7.4.8, 6.2.2, 5.1.8, 4.2.5, and 3.1.4 fix the issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | minimatch | ≥ 10.0.0&&< 10.2.3 | 10.2.3 |
| 📦npm | minimatch | ≥ 9.0.0&&< 9.0.7 | 9.0.7 |
| 📦npm | minimatch | ≥ 8.0.0&&< 8.0.6 | 8.0.6 |
| 📦npm | minimatch | ≥ 7.0.0&&< 7.4.8 | 7.4.8 |
| 📦npm | minimatch | ≥ 6.0.0&&< 6.2.2 | 6.2.2 |
| 📦npm | minimatch | ≥ 5.0.0&&< 5.1.8 | 5.1.8 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for minimatch. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update minimatch to 10.2.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-27904 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 pinpoints whether CVE-2026-27904 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2026-27904. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-27904 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2026-27904 across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.