CVE-2017-16116
Regular Expression Denial of Service in string package
The string module is a module that provides extra string operations. The string module is vulnerable to regular expression denial of service when specifically crafted untrusted user input is passed into the underscore or unescapeHTML methods.
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
The string module is a module that provides extra string operations. The string module is vulnerable to regular expression denial of service when specifically crafted untrusted user input is passed into the underscore or unescapeHTML methods.
- Record
CVE-2017-16116- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/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
The string module is a module that provides extra string operations. The string module is vulnerable to regular expression denial of service when specifically crafted untrusted user input is passed into the underscore or unescapeHTML methods.
- Record
CVE-2017-16116- Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2018-0267 No score
The string module is a module that provides extra string operations. The string module is vulnerable to regular expression denial of service when specifically crafted untrusted user input is passed into the underscore or unescapeHTML methods.
- Record
EUVD-2018-0267- Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-g36h-6r4f-3mqp
Regular Expression Denial of Service in string package
Affected versions of string are vulnerable to regular expression denial of service when specifically crafted untrusted user input is passed into the underscore or unescapeHTML methods.
Recommendation
There is currently no direct patch for this vulnerability.
Currently, the best solution is to avoid passing user input to the underscore and unescapeHTML methods.
Alternatively, a user provided patch is available in Pull Request #217, however this patch has not been tested, nor has it been merged by the package author.
- Record
GHSA-g36h-6r4f-3mqp- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
The string module is a module that provides extra string operations. The string module is vulnerable to regular expression denial of service when specifically crafted untrusted user input is passed into the underscore or unescapeHTML methods.
- Record
CVE-2017-16116- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-g36h-6r4f-3mqp
Regular Expression Denial of Service in string package
Affected versions of string are vulnerable to regular expression denial of service when specifically crafted untrusted user input is passed into the underscore or unescapeHTML methods.
Recommendation
There is currently no direct patch for this vulnerability.
Currently, the best solution is to avoid passing user input to the underscore and unescapeHTML methods.
Alternatively, a user provided patch is available in Pull Request #217, however this patch has not been tested, nor has it been merged by the package author.
- Record
GHSA-g36h-6r4f-3mqp- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/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 |
|---|---|---|
stringnpm |
through 3.3.3 | None known |
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-2017-16116 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.5) in String Project String, 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. No source names a fixed version.