GHSA-2g4f-4pwh-qvx6

ajv has ReDoS when using `$data` option

At a glance

Published
Updated
CVE
CVE-2025-69873
CVSS_V4
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P

Description

ajv (Another JSON Schema Validator) through version 8.17.1 is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) when the `$data` option is enabled. The pattern keyword accepts runtime data via JSON Pointer syntax (`$data` reference), which is passed directly to the JavaScript `RegExp()` constructor without validation. An attacker can inject a malicious regex pattern (e.g., `\"^(a|a)*$\"`) combined with crafted input to cause catastrophic backtracking. A 31-character payload causes approximately 44 seconds of CPU blocking, with each additional character doubling execution time. This enables complete denial of service with a single HTTP request against any API using ajv with `$data`: true for dynamic schema validation.

Affected packages

PackageVersions
npm · ajvintroduced 7.0.0-alpha.0, fixed 8.18.0
npm · ajvintroduced 0, fixed 6.14.0

References

Sources

SourceLicence
OSV.devCC-BY 4.0 — GitHub Advisory Database