What is CVE-2015-8386?

CVE-2015-8386 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Oracle Linux, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2015-12-02.

How severe is CVE-2015-8386?

Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.

Is CVE-2015-8386 known to be exploited?

2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Buffer overflow in Oracle Linux

CVE-2015-8386

PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the interaction of lookbehind assertions and mutually recursive subpatterns, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (buffer overflow) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted regular expression, as demonstrated by a JavaScript RegExp object encountered by Konqueror.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2015-12-02 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.069 (93.8th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 94th percentile — 93.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.071 · newest: 0.069 · change: -0.002

Affected products

Oracle Linux — versions 7
Pcre Perl Compatible Regular Expression Library
PHP
Fedoraproject Fedora — versions 22

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-119 — Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2015/11/29/1 (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016:1132 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/82990 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)
www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinapr2016-2952096.html (Third Party Advisory)
www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss (Third Party Advisory)
rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-1025.html (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-2750.html (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2016-January/174931.html (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
h20566.www2.hpe.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/kb/docDisplay (Third Party Advisory)
bto.bluecoat.com/security-advisory/sa128 (Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2015-8386?: CVE-2015-8386 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Oracle Linux, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2015-12-02.
How severe is CVE-2015-8386?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2015-8386 known to be exploited?: 2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.