CVE Intelligence
Medium Denial of service

CVE-2026-33169 — Rails Active Support has a possible ReDoS vulnerability in number_to_delimited

Active Support is a toolkit of support libraries and Ruby core extensions extracted from the Rails framework. `NumberToDelimitedConverter` uses a lookahead-based regular expression with `gsub!` to insert thousands delimiters. Prior to versions 8.1.2.1, 8.0.4.1, and 7.2.3.1, the interaction between the repeated lookahead group and `gsub!` can produce quadratic time complexity on long digit strings. Versions 8.1.2.1, 8.0.4.1, and 7.2.3.1 contain a patch.

Published Mar 23, 2026 · Updated Oct 13, 2026 · Sources: NIST National Vulnerability Database, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP · CNA: GitHub_M

Who exploits it and how urgent it is

A 0–100 score combining confirmed exploitation, ransomware and APT use, public exploits, EPSS and severity.

No exploitation signal in the sources consulted so far.
How the score was calculated
  • EPSS 0.5% (30-day exploitation probability)+6
  • Technical severity (medium)+3
  • Automatable exploitation (SSVC)+3

The score orders the patch queue; it does not replace your asset context (internet exposure, criticality, compensating controls).

Triage

Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the sources call it.

Exploitation
Not confirmed
Not in CISA KEV — an absence of record, not proof it is unexploited.
EPSS FIRST
0.5%
ahead of 41% of scored CVEs · Oct 14, 2026
Affects
Rails
Activesupport and 1 more
CVSS base
5.3
Medium · 3 source(s)

CISA SSVC assessment CISA

Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses (SSVC 2.0.3). A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.

Exploitation
None
none · proof-of-concept · active
Automatable
Yes
can an attacker script the kill-chain steps
Technical impact
Partial
partial · total control of the vulnerable component

Remediation

Fixes and mitigations documented by the sources — linked to the original advisory.

  • Documented patch — github.com (NIST National Vulnerability Database)
  • Documented patch — github.com (NIST National Vulnerability Database)
  • Documented patch — github.com (NIST National Vulnerability Database)

First 24 hours

Ordered from the record’s own fields — exposure first, because you cannot patch what you have not found. A rule-generated starting point.

  1. Identify exposed assets running the affected vendor/product/version combinations (Rails Activesupport, Rubyonrails Rails).
  2. The attack is network-based and needs no privileges: restrict exposure (ACLs, VPN, WAF) until patched.
  3. Apply the fixed version or the patch documented under Remediation.
  4. Search available logs for exploit probes matching the vulnerability class (denial of service), errors and authentication anomalies.

Affected scope

Vendor, product and versions as the sources word them.

VendorProductVersionsStatusSource
Rails Activesupport version >= 8.1.0.beta1, < 8.1.2.1version >= 8.0.0.beta1, < 8.0.4.1version < 7.2.3.1 Vulnerable CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
Rubyonrails Rails < 7.2.3.1≥ 8.0.0 and < 8.0.4.1≥ 8.1.0 and < 8.1.2.1 Vulnerable NIST National Vulnerability Database

Attack characteristics

The CVSS vector, decoded. It describes the attack, not your exposure to it.

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low

Every base score collected

Sources score independently and may disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.

ScoreVersionSeverityExpl.ImpactScored by
6.9 CVSS 4.0 Medium — — security-advisories@github.com via NIST National Vulnerability Database
6.9 CVSS 4.0 Medium — — GitHub_M via CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
5.3 CVSS 3.1 Medium 3.9 1.4 nvd@nist.gov via NIST National Vulnerability Database
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L (score shown at the top: nvd@nist.gov)

Weakness MITRE

Weakness class according to MITRE’s CWE catalog.

CWE-400 · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Other CVEs with this weakness →

EPSS over time FIRST

Oct 13, 2026 → Oct 14, 2026 · 2 reading(s) · max 0.50%

Detection

Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not tested rules.

  • Prioritize edge telemetry for the network-reachable component (proxy, WAF, IDS/IPS).
  • Track CPU/memory spikes and availability drops correlated with request patterns.
web/proxy/WAF logsnetwork IDS/IPSresource metrics

Timeline

What happened to this CVE, newest first.

  • 2026
  • Affected products added · rails/activesupport
    Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • SSVC assessment updated
    Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • Record published
    Oct 13, 2026
  • Fix documented
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • CVSS changed · 5.3
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Source status changed · → Analyzed
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Record created in this database
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • CVE published
    Mar 23, 2026 · GitHub_M

Source activity

Repeated readings are counted rather than listed.

  • 1× Official description updated · Oct 13, 2026 – Oct 13, 2026

References

7 on the record

Elsewhere on this site

Rails
every CVE for this vendor
Denial of service
same class
CWE-400
other pages naming this weakness

Related CVEs (same products)

  • CVE-2026-33658 Rails Active Storage has a possible DoS vulnerability in proxy mode via multi-range requests Mar 26, 2026
  • CVE-2026-33202 Rails Active Storage has possible glob injection in its DiskService Mar 23, 2026
  • CVE-2026-33170 Rails Active Support has a possible XSS vulnerability in SafeBuffer#% Mar 23, 2026
  • CVE-2026-33173 Rails Active Storage has possible content type bypass via metadata in direct uploads Mar 23, 2026
  • CVE-2026-33174 Rails Active Storage has a possible DoS vulnerability when in proxy mode via Range requests Mar 23, 2026
  • CVE-2026-33176 Rails Active Support has a possible DoS vulnerability in its number helpers Mar 23, 2026

Not in any source we poll

Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.

  • No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
  • No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
  • No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.

Answered from this record

Text assembled only from the fields above — no additional claims.

What should defenders know first?

CVE-2026-33169 is "Rails Active Support has a possible ReDoS vulnerability in number_to_delimited", rated Medium. It affects Activesupport (Rails); versions are in the scope table. It is not in CISA KEV, which does not rule out exploitation. CVSS 5.3 describes technical severity. EPSS 0.50% estimates the probability of exploitation in 30 days; neither replaces your asset context. First verify whether exposed or business-critical assets run the affected versions, apply vendor fixes or mitigations, and preserve logs for review.

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