CVE-2016-3191

Name of the Vulnerable Software and Affected Versions PCRE versions prior to 8.39 PCRE2 versions prior to 10.22

Description The issue arises from the compile branch function in pcre compile.c and pcre2 compile.c, which mishandles patterns containing an (*ACCEPT) substring in conjunction with nested parentheses. This allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (stack-based buffer overflow) via a crafted regular expression. The vulnerability has been demonstrated by a JavaScript RegExp object encountered by Konqueror.

Recommendations For PCRE versions prior to 8.39, update to version 8.39 or later to resolve the issue. For PCRE2 versions prior to 10.22, update to version 10.22 or later to resolve the issue. As a temporary workaround, consider restricting the use of nested parentheses in conjunction with (*ACCEPT) substrings in regular expressions until a patch is available.