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TI-2021-17954 Aliases CVE-2021-41115

Regular expression denial-of-service in Zulip

Priority LOW 32CWE-1333Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Network
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
Denial of service
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
None · None · High
Fix status
Fixed

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-1333.

Summary

Zulip is an open source team chat server. In affected versions Zulip allows organization administrators on a server to configure "linkifiers" that automatically create links from messages that users send, detected via arbitrary regular expressions. Malicious organization administrators could subject the server to a denial-of-service via regular expression complexity attacks; most simply, by configuring a quadratic-time regular expression in a linkifier, and sending messages that exploited it. A regular expression attempted to parse the user-provided regexes to verify that they were safe from ReDoS -- this was both insufficient, as well as _itself_ subject to ReDoS if the organization administrator entered a sufficiently complex invalid regex. Affected users should [upgrade to the just-released Zulip 4.7](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/production/upgrade-or-modify.html#upgrading-to-a-release), or [`main`](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/production/upgrade-or-modify.html#upgrading-from-a-git-repository).

Why it matters now

EPSS 0.01737 77th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Public exploit Yes 1 exploit referenceTagged by NVD
Fix Fixed zulip (zulip): 4.7

SSVC decision points

Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
zulipzulipbefore 4.74.7Patch availableCNA
  • zulip Vendorzulip Affected before 4.7 Fixed in 4.7 Patch available CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 1

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:a:zulip:zulip:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*before 4.7Vulnerablezulip
  • cpe:2.3:a:zulip:zulip:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions before 4.7 Vulnerable ·zulip

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA zulip (zulip) Fixed in 4.7

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2021-41115

References

  • TI-2026-20810 Zulip: Anonymous File Access After Disabling Spectator Access CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.3
  • TI-2026-21062 Zulip: Path Traversal in Import CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.1
  • TI-2021-19605 RabbitMQ exposes ports with weak default secrets in Zulip Server CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2023-15953 Users who can send invitations can erroneously add users to streams during invitation in Zulip CVSS 3.1LOW 3.1
  • TI-2022-13210 Zulip Server insufficient authorization for changing bot roles CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2021-02864 Improper Access Control in zulip/zulip CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
See all 19 →

Sources

This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences