CVE-2017-16098
Regular Expression Denial of Service in charset
charset 1.0.0 and below are vulnerable to regular expression denial of service. Input of around 50k characters is required for a slow down of around 2 seconds. Unless node was compiled using the -DHTTP_MAX_HEADER_SIZE= option the default header max length is 80kb, so the impact of the ReDoS is relatively low.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
NVD Score used
charset 1.0.0 and below are vulnerable to regular expression denial of service. Input of around 50k characters is required for a slow down of around 2 seconds. Unless node was compiled using the -DHTTP_MAX_HEADER_SIZE= option the default header max length is 80kb, so the impact of the ReDoS is relatively low.
- Record
CVE-2017-16098- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 5.0 Medium
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P - Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
CVE List No score
charset 1.0.0 and below are vulnerable to regular expression denial of service. Input of around 50k characters is required for a slow down of around 2 seconds. Unless node was compiled using the -DHTTP_MAX_HEADER_SIZE= option the default header max length is 80kb, so the impact of the ReDoS is relatively low.
- Record
CVE-2017-16098- Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2018-0386 No score
charset 1.0.0 and below are vulnerable to regular expression denial of service. Input of around 50k characters is required for a slow down of around 2 seconds. Unless node was compiled using the -DHTTP_MAX_HEADER_SIZE= option the default header max length is 80kb, so the impact of the ReDoS is relatively low.
- Record
EUVD-2018-0386- Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-9cp3-fh5x-xfcj
Regular Expression Denial of Service in charset
Affected versions of charset are susceptible to a regular expression denial of service.
The amplification on this vulnerability is relatively low - it takes around 2 seconds for the engine to execute on a malicious input which is 50,000 characters in length.
If node was compiled using the -DHTTP_MAX_HEADER_SIZE however, the impact of the vulnerability can be significant, as the primary limitation for the vulnerability is the default max HTTP header length in node.
Recommendation
Update to version 1.0.1 or later.
- Record
GHSA-9cp3-fh5x-xfcj- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
charset 1.0.0 and below are vulnerable to regular expression denial of service. Input of around 50k characters is required for a slow down of around 2 seconds. Unless node was compiled using the -DHTTP_MAX_HEADER_SIZE= option the default header max length is 80kb, so the impact of the ReDoS is relatively low.
- Record
CVE-2017-16098- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-9cp3-fh5x-xfcj
Regular Expression Denial of Service in charset
Affected versions of charset are susceptible to a regular expression denial of service.
The amplification on this vulnerability is relatively low - it takes around 2 seconds for the engine to execute on a malicious input which is 50,000 characters in length.
If node was compiled using the -DHTTP_MAX_HEADER_SIZE however, the impact of the vulnerability can be significant, as the primary limitation for the vulnerability is the default max HTTP header length in node.
Recommendation
Update to version 1.0.1 or later.
- Record
GHSA-9cp3-fh5x-xfcj- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
charsetnpm |
before 1.0.1 | 1.0.1 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| aliases | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2017-16098 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.5) in Charset Project Charset, published June 7, 2018. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.63%, the 76th percentile. Fixed in charset 1.0.1.
References
nodesecurity.io/advisories/524
github.com/node-modules/charset/issues/10
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-16098