What is CVE-2015-8394?

CVE-2015-8394 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Pcre Perl Compatible Regular Expression Library, classified under Integer Overflow or Wraparound. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2015-12-02.

How severe is CVE-2015-8394?

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

Is CVE-2015-8394 known to be exploited?

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

Integer overflow in Pcre Perl Compatible Regular Expression Library

CVE-2015-8394

PCRE before 8.38 mishandles the (?(<digits>) and (?(R<digits>) conditions, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (integer overflow) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted regular expression, as demonstrated by a JavaScript RegExp object encountered by Konqueror.

Vulnerability class: Integer 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: 0.048 (91.7th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 92nd percentile — 91.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.048 · newest: 0.048 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-190 — Integer Overflow or Wraparound

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2015/11/29/1 (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/82990 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)
lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2016-January/174931.html (vendor-advisory, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
h20566.www2.hpe.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/kb/docDisplay (Third Party Advisory)
bto.bluecoat.com/security-advisory/sa128 (Permissions Required, Third Party Advisory)
vcs.pcre.org/pcre/code/trunk/ChangeLog (Broken Link)
security.gentoo.org/glsa/201607-02 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230216-0002/

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2015-8394?: CVE-2015-8394 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Pcre Perl Compatible Regular Expression Library, classified under Integer Overflow or Wraparound. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2015-12-02.
How severe is CVE-2015-8394?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2015-8394 known to be exploited?: 6 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.