Skip to content

chore(deps): update dependency brace-expansion@1 to v5 [security] - autoclosed - #37

Closed
renovate[bot] wants to merge 1 commit into
masterfrom
renovate/npm-brace-expansion1-vulnerability
Closed

renovate[bot] wants to merge 1 commit into
masterfrom
renovate/npm-brace-expansion1-vulnerability

Conversation

@renovate

@renovate renovate Bot commented Oct 1, 2026 •

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor

This PR contains the following updates:

Package Change Age Confidence
brace-expansion@1 ^1.1.13 → ^5.0.0 age confidence

brace-expansion: Quadratic-time expansion of the {a},b} rewrite causes CPU denial of service

CVE-2026-102277 / GHSA-q2hr-2g5m-vwhr

More information

Details

Summary

Expanding {a},b}-shaped input takes time quadratic in the number of literal } characters, blocking the event loop.

Bash preserves a quirk where a brace group followed by a comma set still expands ({a},b}). The parser implements this by rewriting the string and restarting the scan. Each pass absorbs exactly one } and re-scans from the beginning, so n trailing braces cost n full passes.

Reproduction
const build = n => '{a}' + '}'.repeat(n) + ',z}'

for (const n of [8000, 16000, 32000, 64000, 128000]) {
  const t = Date.now()
  expand(build(n))
  console.log(n, Date.now() - t + 'ms')
}
n input time results
8,000 8 KB 110 ms 2
16,000 16 KB 446 ms 2
32,000 32 KB 1.7 s 2
64,000 64 KB 6.9 s 2
128,000 128 KB 27.7 s 2

ms/n^2 is flat at ~1.7 and each doubling of n costs exactly 4.0x - quadratic. 128 KB of input blocks the event loop for nearly half a minute to produce two results.

Mechanism

Instrumenting the rewrite branch confirms it runs exactly n + 1 times, once per literal }, each re-scanning the whole string.

There is a second multiplier. The rewrite replaces the group's closing } with the internal escClose sentinel, which is '\0CLOSE' + Math.random() + '\0' - about 25 characters. The working string therefore grows by ~25 characters on every pass:

n input length final string length
1,000 1,006 26,006
8,000 8,006 208,006

So the input is inflated roughly 26x, and that factor multiplies both the quadratic constant and peak memory. This makes it partly a memory-pressure issue as well as a CPU one.

Why max and maxLength do not help

The cost is in parsing, before the result set exists. The payload yields 2 results regardless of size, so neither bound is ever reached.

Impact

An application passing an untrusted pattern to expand(), directly or through minimatch / glob, can have its event loop blocked for tens of seconds by a payload well under minimatch's 65,536-character cap. For a single-threaded Node server that is a full stall, not just a slow request.

Degraded availability rather than a crash - the process recovers once the expansion completes.

Affected versions

Verified affected on 1.1.18, 2.1.4, 3.0.6 and 5.0.9, all within a few percent of each other (~460-490 ms at n=16,000).

Patch

The rewrite loop gets an iteration bound. Past the cap the remaining string is treated as non-expanding and returned literally, consistent with the existing max / maxLength caps, which truncate rather than throw.

Note this bounds the number of passes, not the cost of each: worst-case work remains proportional to cap x input length. The cap is set low enough that the residual is bounded in practice, and far above what any realistic {a},b} input needs.

Severity note

Scored 5.3 Medium (A:L) for consistency with GHSA-3jxr-9vmj-r5cp, the other algorithmic-complexity advisory on this package (CWE-407), which uses the same vector. The stack-exhaustion advisories on this package score A:H because they crash the process outright; this one stalls it.

Severity

  • CVSS Score: 5.3 / 10 (Medium)
  • Vector String: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

References

This data is provided by the GitHub Advisory Database (CC-BY 4.0).


Release Notes

juliangruber/brace-expansion (brace-expansion@1)

v5.0.12

Compare Source

v5.0.11

Compare Source

v5.0.10

Compare Source

v5.0.9

Compare Source

v5.0.8

Compare Source

v5.0.7

Compare Source

v5.0.6

Compare Source

v5.0.5

Compare Source

v5.0.4

Compare Source

v5.0.3

Compare Source

v5.0.2

Compare Source

v4.0.1

Compare Source


v4.0.0

Compare Source

As a precaution to not risk breaking anything with 278132b, this is a new semver major release

v3.0.9

Compare Source

v3.0.8

Compare Source

v3.0.7

Compare Source

v3.0.6

Compare Source

v3.0.5

Compare Source

v3.0.4

Compare Source

v3.0.3

Compare Source

v3.0.2

Compare Source

v3.0.1

Compare Source


v3.0.0

Compare Source

v2.1.7

Compare Source

v2.1.6

Compare Source

v2.1.5

Compare Source

v2.1.4

Compare Source

v2.1.3

Compare Source

v2.1.2

Compare Source

v2.1.1

Compare Source


v2.1.0

Compare Source

v2.0.3

Compare Source

v2.0.2

Compare Source


v2.0.1

Compare Source

v2.0.0

Compare Source


Configuration

📅 Schedule: (in timezone America/Chicago)

  • Branch creation
    • At any time (no schedule defined)
  • Automerge
    • At any time (no schedule defined)

🚦 Automerge: Enabled.

♻ Rebasing: Whenever PR is behind base branch, or you tick the rebase/retry checkbox.

🔕 Ignore: Close this PR and you won't be reminded about this update again.


  • If you want to rebase/retry this PR, check this box

This PR was generated by Mend Renovate. View the repository job log.

@vercel

vercel Bot commented Oct 1, 2026 •

Copy link
Copy Markdown

The latest updates on your projects. Learn more about Vercel for GitHub.

Project Deployment Actions Updated
rdap Ready Ready Preview Oct 5, 2026 9:54am UTC

@renovate renovate Bot added the security label Oct 1, 2026
@coderabbitai

coderabbitai Bot commented Oct 1, 2026 •

Copy link
Copy Markdown

Important

Review skipped

Bot user detected.

To trigger a single review, invoke the @coderabbitai review command.

⚙️ Run configuration
  • Configuration used: defaults
  • Review profile: CHILL
  • Plan: Advanced
  • Run ID: c4237cd5-6aac-4a8a-8d51-bda8df252d66

You can disable this status message by setting the reviews.review_status to false in the CodeRabbit configuration file.

Use the checkbox below for a quick retry:

  • 🔍 Trigger review
  • Autopilot · Keep fixing CodeRabbit findings and required CI, and resolving merge conflicts

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.

@codecov-commenter

codecov-commenter commented Oct 1, 2026 •

Copy link
Copy Markdown

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 95.58%. Comparing base (1bbaddd) to head (4786478).

Additional details and impacted files
@@           Coverage Diff           @@
##           master      #37   +/-   ##
=======================================
  Coverage   95.58%   95.58%           
=======================================
  Files          16       16           
  Lines         657      657           
  Branches      214      214           
=======================================
  Hits          628      628           
  Misses         29       29           

☔ View full report in Codecov by Harness.
📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

🚀 New features to boost your workflow:
  • 📦 JS Bundle Analysis: Save yourself from yourself by tracking and limiting bundle sizes in JS merges.

@renovate
renovate Bot force-pushed the renovate/npm-brace-expansion1-vulnerability branch from c1fa220 to 4786478 Compare October 5, 2026 09:53
@renovate renovate Bot changed the title chore(deps): update dependency brace-expansion@1 to v5 [security] chore(deps): update dependency brace-expansion@1 to v5 [security] - autoclosed Oct 5, 2026
@renovate renovate Bot closed this Oct 5, 2026
@renovate
renovate Bot deleted the renovate/npm-brace-expansion1-vulnerability branch October 5, 2026 18:07

This branch was successfully deployed

1 active deployment
Preview — 47864780 Deployed Oct 5, 2026 by vercel[bot]
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

1 participant