Security: Regex Denial of Service (ReDoS) via ignore-watch option#901
Open
tomaioo wants to merge 1 commit into
Open
Security: Regex Denial of Service (ReDoS) via ignore-watch option#901tomaioo wants to merge 1 commit into
tomaioo wants to merge 1 commit into
Conversation
The `arrayToRegExp` function in `lib/watch/utils.js` constructs a regular expression from an array of strings. If a user passes specially crafted strings via the `--ignore-watch` CLI argument or the `ignoreWatch` configuration option, it can lead to catastrophic backtracking (ReDoS) and cause the application to hang. Signed-off-by: tomaioo <203048277+tomaioo@users.noreply.github.com>
mcollina
requested changes
Jul 20, 2026
mcollina
left a comment
mcollina
left a comment
Member
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Thanks for opening a PR! Can you please add a unit test?
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
2 participants
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
Summary
Security: Regex Denial of Service (ReDoS) via ignore-watch option
Problem
Severity:
Medium| File:lib/watch/utils.js:L5The
arrayToRegExpfunction inlib/watch/utils.jsconstructs a regular expression from an array of strings. If a user passes specially crafted strings via the--ignore-watchCLI argument or theignoreWatchconfiguration option, it can lead to catastrophic backtracking (ReDoS) and cause the application to hang.Solution
Escape user-supplied strings before injecting them into the RegExp constructor. You can use a library like
escape-string-regexpor manually escape special regex characters.Changes
lib/watch/utils.js(modified)