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CVE-2026-118772EUVD-2026-113320

joi: quadratic-time split in `string().email({ multiple: true })` allows denial of service

Published
Last modified
published
Not listed in CISA KEV
Fix
Fixed in 18.3.1
None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub

Summary

The vulnerability affects the Joi JavaScript data validation library, specifically its email validation with the multiple-address option enabled. An attacker who can submit a crafted, long run of whitespace can force the server to spend excessive time validating it, blocking the Node.js event loop for seconds and denying service to other requests.

Summarized by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5. Verify details against the original sources.

Read the original description

joi is a schema description language and data validator for JavaScript. From 17.1.1 until 17.13.9 and 18.3.1, the Joi.string().email({ multiple: true }) rule uses a separator regular expression whose leading whitespace quantifier is retried at every position in a long whitespace run that contains no separator, causing quadratic work during String.prototype.split. The behavior applies to the default separator and every custom separator. Applications that validate attacker-controlled values with the multiple option and no effective prior length limit can have the Node.js event loop blocked for seconds by one request, preventing other work. A .max() rule is not sufficient when abortEarly: false allows the email rule to run after the maximum-length check fails. This vulnerability is fixed in versions 17.13.9 and 18.3.1.

Timeline

  1. CVE published
  2. First seen by cve.now

Affected versions

  • hapijs joi

    From 16.0.0 · through 17.1.1; From 18.0.0 · fixed in 18.3.1

  • @hapi joi

    From 16.0.0 · through 17.1.1

References 7

GitHub · hapijs/joi