CVE-2026-45149

brace-expansion: Large numeric range defeats documented `max` DoS protection

Published May 29, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 6.5 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
The brace-expansion library generates arbitrary strings containing a common prefix and suffix. From 5.0.0 to before 5.0.6, the max option was being applied too late. When expanding a single large numeric range like {1..10000000}, the sequence generation loop generates all 10 million intermediate elements before the max limit is applied With max=10, the output is correctly limited to 10 items, but the process still allocates ~505 MB and spends ~800ms building the full intermediate array. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.0.6.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-jxxr-4gwj-5jf2 brace-expansion: Large numeric range defeats documented `max` DoS protection
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:juliangruber:brace-expansion:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Juliangruber
Juliangruber brace-expansion
Vendors & Products Juliangruber
Juliangruber brace-expansion
Type Values Removed Values Added
Description The brace-expansion library generates arbitrary strings containing a common prefix and suffix. From 5.0.0 to before 5.0.6, the max option was being applied too late. When expanding a single large numeric range like {1..10000000}, the sequence generation loop generates all 10 million intermediate elements before the max limit is applied With max=10, the output is correctly limited to 10 items, but the process still allocates ~505 MB and spends ~800ms building the full intermediate array. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.0.6.
Title brace-expansion: Large numeric range defeats documented `max` DoS protection
Weaknesses CWE-400
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 6.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
GitHub_M
Published
Updated
Jun 1, 2026, 4:44 PM
Reserved
May 8, 2026, 8:44 PM
Status
Analyzed
Published
May 29, 2026, 8:16 PM
Modified
Jul 22, 2026, 6:10 AM
Severity
Moderate
Public date
May 29, 2026, 7:55 PM