Vulnerability in Babel

CVE-2025-27789

Babel is a compiler for writing next generation JavaScript. When using versions of Babel prior to 7.26.10 and 8.0.0-alpha.17 to compile regular expression named capturing groups, Babel will generate a polyfill for the `.replace` method that has quadratic complexity on some specific replacement pattern strings (i.e. the second argument passed to `.replace`). Generated code is vulnerable if all the following conditions are true: Using Babel to compile regular expression named capturing groups, using the `.replace` method on a regular expression that contains named capturing groups, and the code using untrusted strings as the second argument of `.replace`. This problem has been fixed in `@babel/helpers` and `@babel/runtime` 7.26.10 and 8.0.0-alpha.17. It's likely that individual users do not directly depend on `@babel/helpers`, and instead depend on `@babel/core` (which itself depends on `@babel/helpers`). Upgrading to `@babel/core` 7.26.10 is not required, but it guarantees use of a new enough `@babel/helpers` version. Note that just updating Babel dependencies is not enough; one will also need to re-compile the code. No known workarounds are available.

Vulnerability class: ReDoS (Regular Expression Denial of Service)

EPSS: 0.005 (38.6th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.2 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Affected products

  • Babel — versions < 7.26.10, >= 8.0.0-alpha.0, < 8.0.0-alpha.17

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-27789?
CVE-2025-27789 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Babel, classified under Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity. CVSS score: 6.2/10. Published 2025-03-11.
How severe is CVE-2025-27789?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.2 out of 10.
Is CVE-2025-27789 known to be exploited?
5 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.