How severe is CVE-2015-8390?

CVE-2015-8390 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 9.8, rated critical severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is high, integrity high, and availability high.

Is CVE-2015-8390 being actively exploited?

It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 5% (91st percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What products are affected by CVE-2015-8390?

CVE-2015-8390 primarily affects Pcre Perl Compatible Regular Expression Library. In total, 3 product configurations (CPEs) are listed as vulnerable; see the affected-products list for the exact versions.

How do I fix CVE-2015-8390?

Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its critical severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.

When was CVE-2015-8390 published?

CVE-2015-8390 was published on 2015-12-02 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

CVE-2015-8390

CVE-2015-8390 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Pcre Perl Compatible Regular Expression Library with a CVSS 3.x base score of 9.8. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-908.

Key facts

Severity: Critical (CVSS 3.x base score 9.8)
CVSS v2: 7.5
EPSS exploit prediction: 5% (91st percentile)
Actively exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
Weakness: CWE-908
Affected product: Pcre Perl Compatible Regular Expression Library
Published: 2015-12-02
Last modified: 2026-06-17

Description

PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the [: and \\ substrings in character classes, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (uninitialized memory read) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted regular expression, as demonstrated by a JavaScript RegExp object encountered by Konqueror.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2015-8390?: PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the [: and \\ substrings in character classes, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (uninitialized memory read) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted regular expression, as demonstrated by a JavaScript RegExp object encountered by Konqueror.
How severe is CVE-2015-8390?: CVE-2015-8390 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 9.8, rated critical severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is high, integrity high, and availability high.
Is CVE-2015-8390 being actively exploited?: It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 5% (91st percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2015-8390?: CVE-2015-8390 primarily affects Pcre Perl Compatible Regular Expression Library. In total, 3 product configurations (CPEs) are listed as vulnerable; see the affected-products list for the exact versions.
How do I fix CVE-2015-8390?: Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its critical severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.
When was CVE-2015-8390 published?: CVE-2015-8390 was published on 2015-12-02 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (3)

cpe:2.3:a:pcre:perl_compatible_regular_expression_library:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:22:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:php:php:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

More vulnerabilities in Pcre Perl Compatible Regular Expression Library

CVE-2015-8394 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the (?(<digits>) and (?(R<digits>) conditions, which allows remote attackers to cause a…
CVE-2015-8389 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the /(?:|a|){100}x/ pattern and related patterns, which allows remote attackers to cause a…
CVE-2015-8386 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the interaction of lookbehind assertions and mutually recursive subpatterns, which allows…
CVE-2015-8383 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): PCRE before 8.38 mishandles certain repeated conditional groups, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of…
CVE-2015-8395 — High (CVSS 7.5): PCRE before 8.38 mishandles certain references, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly…
CVE-2015-8393 — High (CVSS 7.5): pcregrep in PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the -q option for binary files, which might allow remote attackers to obtain…

All CVEs affecting Pcre Perl Compatible Regular Expression Library →

Other CWE-908 (Use of Uninitialized Resource) vulnerabilities

CVE-2025-1942 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): When String.toUpperCase() caused a string to get longer it was possible for uninitialized memory to be incorporated…
CVE-2024-47540 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): GStreamer is a library for constructing graphs of media-handling components. An uninitialized stack variable…
CVE-2024-32611 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): HDF5 Library through 1.14.3 may use an uninitialized value in H5A__attr_release_table in H5Aint.c.
CVE-2023-24941 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): Windows Network File System Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
CVE-2022-26437 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): In httpclient, there is a possible out of bounds write due to uninitialized data. This could lead to remote escalation…
CVE-2021-45703 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): An issue was discovered in the tectonic_xdv crate before 0.1.12 for Rust. XdvParser::<T>::process may read from…

Browse all CWE-908 (Use of Uninitialized Resource) vulnerabilities →

Threat intelligence

Threat-intel indicators referencing this CVE:

183.182.99.92 (ipv4-addr)
103.153.190.105 (ipv4-addr)
188.44.20.32 (ipv4-addr)
198.199.94.79 (ipv4-addr)
122.3.106.113 (ipv4-addr)