Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2020-26308 is a denial-of-service risk in validate.js. A crafted value can make vulnerable regular expressions consume excessive CPU, potentially slowing or blocking services that validate untrusted input. Sources say versions 0.13.1 and prior are affected, and no known patch was available at publication.
Executive priority
Treat as high priority where validate.js is used in internet-facing or critical workflows. The business risk is service degradation or outage, not data theft, but the source states no known patch at publication.
Technical view
validate.js 0.13.1 and earlier contains inefficient regular expressions classified as CWE-1333. The CVSS 4.0 score is 8.7 because the issue is network-reachable, unauthenticated, low-complexity, and impacts availability, not confidentiality or integrity.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely in JavaScript applications or services that include ansman validate.js 0.13.1 or earlier and apply validation to user-controlled strings, API fields, forms, or imported data.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not show CISA KEV listing or confirmed active exploitation. The risk is practical denial of service when untrusted input reaches vulnerable validation paths, but exploit status is not established.
Researcher notes
Evidence supports ReDoS in validate.js through vulnerable regular expressions and high availability impact. The bundle does not provide patch details, proof of exploitation, or affected downstream products, so conclusions should remain limited to ansman validate.js.
Mitigation direction
- Check vendor advisory and GitHub issue for current patch or maintainer guidance.
- Inventory direct and transitive use of validate.js across applications.
- Replace or remove affected validate.js versions where feasible.
- Reduce exposure of vulnerable validation paths to untrusted long input.
- Use operational DoS controls such as request limits and monitoring where replacement is delayed.
Validation and detection
- Review package manifests, lockfiles, and SBOMs for validate.js versions 0.13.1 or earlier.
- Trace whether affected validation code processes externally supplied input.
- Confirm whether vulnerable paths run server-side or in business-critical workflows.
- Monitor CPU saturation, request latency, and validation error spikes around exposed endpoints.
- Re-check the linked advisory and issue for updated patch status before closure.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-1333: Exact CWE lookup
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Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2020-26308 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 8.7 (4.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/U:Green
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/U:Green——Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 4.0 score
8.7HighVector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/U:Green
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://securitylab.github.com/advisories/GHSL-2020-302-redos-validate.js/CVE reference
- https://github.com/ansman/validate.js/issues/342CVE reference
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity
Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.