CVE-2026-79770 — Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity (ReDoS) in Nokogiri
Nokogiri versions before 1.19.3 contain regular expression denial of service vulnerabilities in the CSS selector tokenizer affecting string-literal and identifier tokenization. Attackers can inject adversarial CSS selectors into methods like Node#css, Node#at_css, and Searchable#search to cause exponential regex backtracking and denial of service.
Who exploits it and how urgent it is
A 0–100 score combining confirmed exploitation, ransomware and APT use, public exploits, EPSS and severity.
How the score was calculated
- Technical severity (high)+6
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.
Remediation
Fixes and mitigations documented by the sources — linked to the original advisory.
- Documented mitigation — 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.
- Identify exposed assets running the affected vendor/product/version combinations (Nokogiri Nokogiri).
- The attack is network-based and needs no privileges: restrict exposure (ACLs, VPN, WAF) until patched.
- Apply the documented mitigations until a definitive fix is available.
- 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.
Attack characteristics
The CVSS vector, decoded. It describes the attack, not your exposure to it.
Every base score collected
Sources score independently and may disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.
| Score | Version | Severity | Expl. | Impact | Scored by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.7 | CVSS 4.0 | High | — | — | disclosure@vulncheck.com via NIST National Vulnerability Database |
| 7.5 | CVSS 3.1 | High | 3.9 | 3.6 | disclosure@vulncheck.com via NIST National Vulnerability Database |
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H (score shown at the top: disclosure@vulncheck.com) Weakness MITRE
Weakness class according to MITRE’s CWE catalog.
CWE-1333 · Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity (ReDoS)
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.
Timeline
What happened to this CVE, newest first.
- 2026
- Record published
- Fix documented
- CVSS changed · 7.5
- Source status changed · → Analyzed
- Record created in this database
- CVE published
Source activity
Repeated readings are counted rather than listed.
- 1× Official description updated · Oct 15, 2026 – Oct 15, 2026
References
2 on the record
Elsewhere on this site
Related CVEs (same products)
- Medium CVE-2026-79771 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime in Nokogiri Aug 25, 2026
- Medium CVE-2026-79772 Unchecked Return Value in Nokogiri Aug 25, 2026
- Medium CVE-2026-57438 Nokogiri: Possible Use-After-Free in XInclude Processing Jun 25, 2026
- High CVE-2026-57435 Nokogiri: Possible Use-After-Free when setting an attribute value via `Nokogiri::XML::Attr#value=` or `#content=` Jun 25, 2026
- Medium CVE-2026-57436 Nokogiri: Possible Use-After-Free when setting `Document#root=` to an invalid node type Jun 25, 2026
- Medium CVE-2026-57437 Nokogiri: Possible Use-After-Free when directly using `NokogirI::XML::XPathContext` beyond document lifetime Jun 25, 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 FIRST EPSS score.
- No CISA SSVC assessment.
- 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-2026-79770 is "Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity (ReDoS) in Nokogiri", rated High. It affects Nokogiri (Nokogiri); versions are in the scope table. It is not in CISA KEV, which does not rule out exploitation. CVSS 7.5 describes technical severity. 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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