Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-26996

high Nessus Plugin ID 299696

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- minimatch is a minimal matching utility for converting glob expressions into JavaScript RegExp objects.
Versions 10.2.0 and below are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) when a glob pattern contains many consecutive * wildcards followed by a literal character that doesn't appear in the test string. Each * compiles to a separate [^/]*? regex group, and when the match fails, V8's regex engine backtracks exponentially across all possible splits. The time complexity is O(4^N) where N is the number of * characters. With N=15, a single minimatch() call takes ~2 seconds. With N=34, it hangs effectively forever. Any application that passes user-controlled strings to minimatch() as the pattern argument is vulnerable to DoS. This issue has been fixed in version 10.2.1. (CVE-2026-26996)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 299696

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_26996.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 2/20/2026

Updated: 2/20/2026

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5

Temporal Score: 4.5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-26996

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 7.1

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:U/RC:C

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.7

Threat Score: 7.7

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:P

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:pcs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:polkit, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:polkit-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:polkit-docs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gjs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gjs-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:pcs-snmp, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:pcs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:npm, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:polkit, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:polkit-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:polkit-docs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gjs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gjs-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:mozjs60, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:mozjs60-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-docs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-full-i18n, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-nodemon, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-packaging, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-azure-monitor, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-cloudwatch, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-elasticsearch, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-graphite, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-influxdb, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-loki, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-mssql, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-mysql, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-opentsdb, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-postgres, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-prometheus, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-stackdriver, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:pcs-snmp, cpe:/o:centos:centos:8, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-docs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-nodemon, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-packaging, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:npm, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:mozjs60, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:mozjs60-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-full-i18n, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-azure-monitor, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-cloudwatch, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-elasticsearch, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-graphite, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-influxdb, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-loki, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-mssql, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-mysql, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-opentsdb, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-postgres, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-prometheus, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-stackdriver, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:polkit-libs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:polkit-libs, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-libs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-packaging-bundler, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-packaging-bundler, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-libs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:grafana-selinux, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:grafana-selinux, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:v8-12.4-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs22, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs-npm, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs22, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs-npm, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:v8-12.4-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs24, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs24-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs24-docs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs24-full-i18n, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs24-libs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:nodejs24-npm, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs24, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs24-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs24-docs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs24-full-i18n, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs24-libs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:nodejs24-npm, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:v8-13.6-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:v8-13.6-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:js-uglify, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:uglify-js, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:js-uglify, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:uglify-js

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/local_checks_enabled, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 2/18/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-26996

Detections

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