{"id":"CVE-2023-45813","aliases":["EUVD-2023-2681","GHSA-72qw-p7hh-m3ff","PYSEC-2026-1969"],"status":"published","title":"Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity in TorBot","description":"Torbot is an open source tor network intelligence tool. In affected versions the `torbot.modules.validators.validate_link function` uses the python-validators URL validation regex. This particular regular expression has an exponential complexity which allows an attacker to cause an application crash using a well-crafted argument. An attacker can use a well-crafted URL argument to exploit the vulnerability in the regular expression and cause a Denial of Service on the system. The validators file has been removed in version 4.0.0. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.","severity":{"version":"3.1","score":4.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium","assessor":"cna","from":"cve"},"epss":{"day":"2026-11-09","score":0.00961,"percentile":0.61792,"model":"v2026.06.15"},"facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":false,"fix_available":true},"cwes":["CWE-1333"],"published":"2023-10-18T20:26:44Z","modified":"2026-11-04T02:46:11Z","fixes":[{"ecosystem":"PyPI","package":"torbot","fixed_in":["4.0.0"],"sources":["ghsa","osv"]}],"affected":[{"source":"ghsa","ecosystem":"PyPI","package":"torbot","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"4.0.0"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"PyPI","package":"torbot","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"4.0.0"}]}],"versions":["1.2","2.1.0","3.0.1","3.1.1","3.1.2"]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"PyPI","package":"torbot","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"4.0.0"}]}],"versions":["1.2","2.1.0","3.0.1","3.1.1","3.1.2"]}],"products":[{"vendor":"dedsecinside","product":"torbot"},{"vendor":"torbot_project","product":"torbot"},{"vendor":"validators_project","product":"validators"}],"references":[{"url":"https://github.com/DedSecInside/TorBot/security/advisories/GHSA-72qw-p7hh-m3ff","tags":["x_refsource_CONFIRM","x_transferred","Exploit","Vendor Advisory","advisory","web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/DedSecInside/TorBot/commit/ef6e06bc7785355b1701d5524eb4550441086ac4","tags":["x_refsource_MISC","x_transferred","Patch","fix","web"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-45813","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://gist.github.com/ikkebr/6041055314f1cfb8e65b2a1acbaae12c","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/DedSecInside/TorBot/blob/d2b89192379ad033ffc7044efff26e16ccc02d5a/torbot/modules/validators.py#L13","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-72qw-p7hh-m3ff","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/45xxx/CVE-2023-45813.json","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/DedSecInside/TorBot","tags":["package"]},{"url":"https://pypi.org/project/torbot","tags":["package"]}],"sources":{"cve":[{"id":"CVE-2023-45813","title":"Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity in TorBot","description":"Torbot is an open source tor network intelligence tool. In affected versions the `torbot.modules.validators.validate_link function` uses the python-validators URL validation regex. This particular regular expression has an exponential complexity which allows an attacker to cause an application crash using a well-crafted argument. An attacker can use a well-crafted URL argument to exploit the vulnerability in the regular expression and cause a Denial of Service on the system. The validators file has been removed in version 4.0.0. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.","status":"published","published":"2023-10-18T20:26:44.531Z","modified":"2024-09-13T14:39:25.852Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium","assessor":"cna"}],"cwes":["CWE-1333"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:35:22.984825Z"}],"euvd":[{"id":"EUVD-2023-2681","description":"Torbot is an open source tor network intelligence tool. In affected versions the `torbot.modules.validators.validate_link function` uses the python-validators URL validation regex. This particular regular expression has an exponential complexity which allows an attacker to cause an application crash using a well-crafted argument. An attacker can use a well-crafted URL argument to exploit the vulnerability in the regular expression and cause a Denial of Service on the system. The validators file has been removed in version 4.0.0. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.","status":"published","published":"2023-10-18T20:26:44Z","modified":"2024-09-13T14:39:25Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-03T00:55:55.933062Z"}],"ghsa":[{"id":"GHSA-72qw-p7hh-m3ff","title":"TorBot vulnerable to Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity in validate_link","description":"### Summary\n_The torbot.modules.validators.validate_link function uses the python-validators URL validation regex. This particular regular expression has an exponential complexity which allows an attacker to cause an application crash using a well-crafted argument.._\n\n### Details\nhttps://github.com/DedSecInside/TorBot/blob/d2b89192379ad033ffc7044efff26e16ccc02d5a/torbot/modules/validators.py#L13\n\nAn attacker can use a well-crafted URL argument to exploit the vulnerability in the regular expression and cause a Denial of Service on the system.\n\n### PoC\nI have uploaded a secret gist containing a PoC (https://gist.github.com/ikkebr/6041055314f1cfb8e65b2a1acbaae12c). By adding one special character at the end of the user argument of the URL, the regular expression will take exponentially longer to compute.\n\nFor a string of size 10k, the regex will take 0.01s without the well-crafted URL and 1.3s with the well-crafted URL exploit.\nFor a string of size 50k, the regex will take 0.03s without the well-crafted URL and 35s with the well-crafted URL exploit.\nFor a string of size 100k, the regex will take 0.05s without the well-crafted URL and over 200s with the well-crafted URL exploit.\n\nThe regular expression used in the validators library versions [0.20, 0.11] is vulnerable to this attack. Version 0.21 appears to be unaffected, but it no longer contains a single regular expression.\n\n### Impact\nAn attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a denial of service or increased resource usage.\n","status":"published","published":"2023-10-19T12:33:03Z","modified":"2023-11-06T05:01:25Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium"}],"cwes":["CWE-1333"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:37:14.234712Z"}],"nvd":[{"id":"CVE-2023-45813","description":"Torbot is an open source tor network intelligence tool. In affected versions the `torbot.modules.validators.validate_link function` uses the python-validators URL validation regex. This particular regular expression has an exponential complexity which allows an attacker to cause an application crash using a well-crafted argument. An attacker can use a well-crafted URL argument to exploit the vulnerability in the regular expression and cause a Denial of Service on the system. The validators file has been removed in version 4.0.0. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.","status":"published","published":"2023-10-18T21:15:09.64Z","modified":"2026-06-17T06:29:34.597Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium","assessor":"secondary"},{"version":"3.1","score":7.5,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"primary"}],"cwes":["CWE-1333"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:08:39.058878Z"}],"osv":[{"id":"CVE-2023-45813","title":"Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity in TorBot","description":"Torbot is an open source tor network intelligence tool. In affected versions the `torbot.modules.validators.validate_link function` uses the python-validators URL validation regex. This particular regular expression has an exponential complexity which allows an attacker to cause an application crash using a well-crafted argument. An attacker can use a well-crafted URL argument to exploit the vulnerability in the regular expression and cause a Denial of Service on the system. The validators file has been removed in version 4.0.0. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.","status":"published","published":"2023-10-18T20:26:44.531Z","modified":"2026-11-10T10:45:11.797888664Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium"}],"cwes":["CWE-1333"],"updated_at":"2026-11-10T10:57:25.458985Z"},{"id":"GHSA-72qw-p7hh-m3ff","title":"TorBot vulnerable to Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity in validate_link","description":"### Summary\n_The torbot.modules.validators.validate_link function uses the python-validators URL validation regex. This particular regular expression has an exponential complexity which allows an attacker to cause an application crash using a well-crafted argument.._\n\n### Details\nhttps://github.com/DedSecInside/TorBot/blob/d2b89192379ad033ffc7044efff26e16ccc02d5a/torbot/modules/validators.py#L13\n\nAn attacker can use a well-crafted URL argument to exploit the vulnerability in the regular expression and cause a Denial of Service on the system.\n\n### PoC\nI have uploaded a secret gist containing a PoC (https://gist.github.com/ikkebr/6041055314f1cfb8e65b2a1acbaae12c). By adding one special character at the end of the user argument of the URL, the regular expression will take exponentially longer to compute.\n\nFor a string of size 10k, the regex will take 0.01s without the well-crafted URL and 1.3s with the well-crafted URL exploit.\nFor a string of size 50k, the regex will take 0.03s without the well-crafted URL and 35s with the well-crafted URL exploit.\nFor a string of size 100k, the regex will take 0.05s without the well-crafted URL and over 200s with the well-crafted URL exploit.\n\nThe regular expression used in the validators library versions [0.20, 0.11] is vulnerable to this attack. Version 0.21 appears to be unaffected, but it no longer contains a single regular expression.\n\n### Impact\nAn attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a denial of service or increased resource usage.\n","status":"published","published":"2023-10-19T12:33:03Z","modified":"2026-09-10T03:49:58.63206982Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium"}],"cwes":["CWE-1333"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:46:40.308826Z"},{"id":"PYSEC-2026-1969","title":"TorBot vulnerable to Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity in validate_link","description":"### Summary\n_The torbot.modules.validators.validate_link function uses the python-validators URL validation regex. This particular regular expression has an exponential complexity which allows an attacker to cause an application crash using a well-crafted argument.._\n\n### Details\nhttps://github.com/DedSecInside/TorBot/blob/d2b89192379ad033ffc7044efff26e16ccc02d5a/torbot/modules/validators.py#L13\n\nAn attacker can use a well-crafted URL argument to exploit the vulnerability in the regular expression and cause a Denial of Service on the system.\n\n### PoC\nI have uploaded a secret gist containing a PoC (https://gist.github.com/ikkebr/6041055314f1cfb8e65b2a1acbaae12c). By adding one special character at the end of the user argument of the URL, the regular expression will take exponentially longer to compute.\n\nFor a string of size 10k, the regex will take 0.01s without the well-crafted URL and 1.3s with the well-crafted URL exploit.\nFor a string of size 50k, the regex will take 0.03s without the well-crafted URL and 35s with the well-crafted URL exploit.\nFor a string of size 100k, the regex will take 0.05s without the well-crafted URL and over 200s with the well-crafted URL exploit.\n\nThe regular expression used in the validators library versions [0.20, 0.11] is vulnerable to this attack. Version 0.21 appears to be unaffected, but it no longer contains a single regular expression.\n\n### Impact\nAn attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a denial of service or increased resource usage.\n","status":"published","published":"2026-07-07T11:45:25.857668Z","modified":"2026-07-07T17:48:05.329140268Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:52:55.537808Z"}]}}