Regular Expression Denial of Service in debug
Affected versions of debug are vulnerable to regular expression denial of service when untrusted user input is passed into the o formatter.
As it takes 50,000 characters to block the event loop for 2 seconds, this issue is a low severity issue.
This was later re-introduced in version v3.2.0, and then repatched in versions 3.2.7 and 4.3.1.
Recommendation
Version 2.x.x: Update to version 2.6.9 or later. Version 3.1.x: Update to version 3.1.0 or later. Version 3.2.x: Update to version 3.2.7 or later. Version 4.x.x: Update to version 4.3.1 or later.
Affected software
Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.
| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| npm package | debug | < 2.6.9, >= 3.0.0, < 3.1.0, >= 3.2.0, < 3.2.7, >= 4.0.0, < 4.3.1 | 2.6.9, 3.1.0, 3.2.7, 4.3.1 |
References
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-16137
- https://github.com/debug-js/debug/issues/797
- https://github.com/visionmedia/debug/issues/501
- https://github.com/visionmedia/debug/pull/504
- https://github.com/debug-js/debug/commit/4e2150207c568adb9ead8f4c4528016081c88020
- https://github.com/debug-js/debug/commit/71169065b5262f9858ac78cc0b688c84a438f290
- https://github.com/debug-js/debug/commit/b6d12fdbc63b483e5c969da33ea6adc09946b5ac
- https://github.com/debug-js/debug/commit/f53962e944a87e6ca9bb622a2a12dffc22a9bb5a
- https://github.com/visionmedia/debug
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r8ba4c628fba7181af58817d452119481adce4ba92e889c643e4c7dd3@%3Ccommits.netbeans.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rb5ac16fad337d1f3bb7079549f97d8166d0ef3082629417c39f12d63@%3Cnotifications.netbeans.apache.org%3E
- CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-400- Platform
- npm
- Package
debug- Disclosed
- 09.08.2018
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 10:22
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-gxpj-cx7g-858c - CC BY 4.0
Vulnerability history: debug
All published vulnerabilities of this package (npm package), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.
- Total entries
- 3
- First → latest
- 08.2018 09.2025
- Without a fix
- 0
- Exploited in attacks
- 0
Severity breakdown
- High 2
- Low 1
Disclosures per year
- 2018: 1
- 2019: 0
- 2020: 0
- 2021: 0
- 2022: 0
- 2023: 1
- 2024: 0
- 2025: 1
- 2026: 0
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Regular Expression Denial of Service in debug this entry
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