Phalcon: Catastrophic backtracking (ReDoS) in the default Phalcon Router route lead to remote unauthenticated DoS
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Attack requirements
- None
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub. Impact type from CWE-1333.
Summary
Phalcon is a high-performance, full-stack PHP framework. Prior to 5.15.0, every Phalcon MVC application built with a default router registers a built-in route whose compiled PCRE pattern contains the nested quantifier (/.), and the same construct is produced by the /:params placeholder and the CLI router. Phalcon\Mvc\Router::handle() matches this pattern against the attacker-controlled request URI on every request, so a crafted path such as one containing repeated slashes followed by decoded newlines can trigger catastrophic backtracking and cause CPU exhaustion or route-matching failure. This issue is fixed in version 5.15.0.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| phalcon | cphalcon | before 5.15.0 | 5.15.0 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | phalcon/cphalcon (Packagist) | before 5.15.0 | 5.15.0 | Patch available | GHSA-x7rj-f32v-7jjg |
- cphalcon Vendorphalcon Affected before 5.15.0 Fixed in 5.15.0 Patch available CNA
- phalcon/cphalcon (Packagist) Vendor— Affected before 5.15.0 Fixed in 5.15.0 Patch available GHSA-x7rj-f32v-7jjg
Remediation
- Fix · CNA cphalcon (phalcon) Fixed in 5.15.0
- Fix · GHSA-x7rj-f32v-7jjg phalcon/cphalcon (Packagist) Fixed in 5.15.0 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-57584
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-x7rj-f32v-7jjg
References
Other 5
- https://github.com/phalcon/cphalcon/security/advisories/GHSA-x7rj-f32v-7jjg
- https://github.com/phalcon/cphalcon/commit/14ba22d389d5ca620bb9d5207205f836ef1224f2
- https://github.com/phalcon/cphalcon/commit/fa798e919cb2c487062bb9899ad6fc2b673b3a67
- https://github.com/phalcon/cphalcon/releases/tag/v5.15.0
- https://github.com/phalcon/cphalcon
More phalcon vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-42773 Phalcon Volt compiler `join` filter compile-time PHP code injection (SSTI lead to RCE) CVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.2
- TI-2026-39548 Phalcon: Non-constant-time HMAC verification in `Encryption\Crypt::decrypt` (timing side-channel) CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.2
Sources
- CVE-2026-57584 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-57584 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-x7rj-f32v-7jjg · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
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