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CVE-2026-33750: brace-expansion: Zero-step sequence causes process hang and memory exhaustion

March 26, 2026 (updated March 27, 2026)

A brace pattern with a zero step value (e.g., {1..2..0}) causes the sequence generation loop to run indefinitely, making the process hang for seconds and allocate heaps of memory.

The loop in question:

https://github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/blob/daa71bcb4a30a2df9bcb7f7b8daaf2ab30e5794a/src/index.ts#L184

test() is one of

https://github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/blob/daa71bcb4a30a2df9bcb7f7b8daaf2ab30e5794a/src/index.ts#L107-L113

The increment is computed as Math.abs(0) = 0, so the loop variable never advances. On a test machine, the process hangs for about 3.5 seconds and allocates roughly 1.9 GB of memory before throwing a RangeError. Setting max to any value has no effect because the limit is only checked at the output combination step, not during sequence generation.

This affects any application that passes untrusted strings to expand(), or by error sets a step value of 0. That includes tools built on minimatch/glob that resolve patterns from CLI arguments or config files. The input needed is just 10 bytes.

References

  • github.com/advisories/GHSA-f886-m6hf-6m8v
  • github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion
  • github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/blob/daa71bcb4a30a2df9bcb7f7b8daaf2ab30e5794a/src/index.ts
  • github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/blob/daa71bcb4a30a2df9bcb7f7b8daaf2ab30e5794a/src/index.ts
  • github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/commit/311ac0d54994158c0a384e286a7d6cbb17ee8ed5
  • github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/commit/7fd684f89fdde3549563d0a6522226a9189472a2
  • github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/commit/b9cacd9e55e7a1fa588fe4b7bb1159d52f1d902a
  • github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/issues/98
  • github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/pull/95
  • github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/pull/96
  • github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/pull/97
  • github.com/juliangruber/brace-expansion/security/advisories/GHSA-f886-m6hf-6m8v
  • nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-33750

Code Behaviors & Features

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Affected versions

All versions before 1.1.13, all versions starting from 2.0.0 before 2.0.3, all versions starting from 3.0.0 before 3.0.2, all versions starting from 4.0.0 before 5.0.5

Fixed versions

  • 5.0.5
  • 3.0.2
  • 2.0.3
  • 1.1.13

Solution

Upgrade to versions 1.1.13, 2.0.3, 3.0.2, 5.0.5 or above.

Impact 6.5 MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Learn more about CVSS

Weakness

  • CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Source file

npm/brace-expansion/CVE-2026-33750.yml

Spotted a mistake? Edit the file on GitLab.

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