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Ghost CMS EUVDEUVD-2026-92636

| CVE-2026-105646 MEDIUM
Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity (ReDoS) (CWE-1333)
2026-10-05 GitHub_M GHSA-fwh9-qg68-vxp4
4.9
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: GitHub_M
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Authenticate as Ghost administrator
  2. Delivery
    Craft content import file with malicious directory names
  3. Exploit
    Upload import to trigger regex backtracking
  4. Execution
    Event loop saturates CPU
  5. Impact
    Ghost server becomes unresponsive (DoS)

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V2 - Validation and Business Logic Regex complexity limits
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

Requires an authenticated Ghost Administrator (CVSS PR:H) who can submit a content import file through Ghost's import feature; the attacker crafts file/directory path names so that the importer's path-prefix regex (built via unescaped new RegExp('^' + dir + '/') in the image, markdown, revue, and content-file import handlers) suffers catastrophic backtracking. The decisive limiting factor is the Administrator privilege requirement - this is not reachable by anonymous or low-privileged users, and no end-user interaction is involved. Affects Ghost versions 4.0.0 up to (but not including) 6.67.0; upgrading to 6.67.0 remediates it by escaping directory names with lodash _.escapeRegExp and bounding the media-inliner matcher with a V8 execution timeout.

Impact

This is a genuinely low-to-moderate priority issue despite being a server-availability flaw. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, base 4.9 Medium) is the most important signal: exploitation requires PR:H - Administrator access to the Ghost instance - which is confirmed by both the vector and the description ('Exploiting this requires Administrator access'). An attacker who is already a full administrator can typically disrupt the service through many legitimate means, so the marginal risk added by this CWE-1333 (inefficient regular expression / ReDoS) denial-of-service is limited. Impact is availability-only (C:N/I:N); there is no code execution, data exposure, or integrity loss. No EPSS score was supplied, and there is no CISA KEV listing and no public exploit code referenced - so exploitation status is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis.' No SSVC decision data was provided. The signals are internally consistent (no conflicts between vector and description), so the main caveat is simply that the high-privilege precondition makes this far less urgent than the network attack vector alone might suggest.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

A malicious or compromised Ghost administrator uploads a crafted content import archive in which directory/path names are constructed to trigger catastrophic regex backtracking in the importer's path-matching handlers. Processing the import pins the Node.js event loop at high CPU, rendering the Ghost server unresponsive to all users until the process is restarted. No public exploit code was identified, but the fixing PR (#31058) reveals the vulnerable unescaped new RegExp('^' + dir + '/') pattern, making the mechanism straightforward to reconstruct.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
Patch available 0.3% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Oct 05, 2026

A denial-of-service condition in Ghost CMS affects versions 4.0.0 through 6.66.x, where a crafted content import file can drive catastrophic regular-expression backtracking and pin the Node.js event loop, leaving the server unresponsive. The vulnerability is only reachable by an authenticated Ghost Administrator (CVSS PR:H) who submits a malicious import through the built-in content import feature, so the practical risk is limited to environments where admin credentials are already compromised or misused. No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis and there is no confirmed active exploitation (no CISA KEV listing); vendor-released patch: 6.67.0.

RemediationAI

Upgrade Ghost to 6.67.0 or later (vendor-released patch: 6.67.0), which escapes imported directory names with lodash _.escapeRegExp in the image, markdown, revue and content-file import handlers and bounds the external media inliner's regex evaluation with a V8 execution timeout; the change is carried by https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/commit/88ae6d6d56f8a239cb38a8c89de02f034f50e2ce and PR https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/pull/31058, with advisory details at https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/security/advisories/GHSA-fwh9-qg68-vxp4. Where immediate upgrading is not possible, the attacker precondition is an authenticated Administrator, so the most effective compensating control is access control rather than code change: restrict Admin API access to trusted networks or VPN (side effect: remote/editorial staff lose direct admin access until they connect through the tunnel), enforce strong MFA and audit Administrator accounts to eliminate shared or stale admin credentials (side effect: account-recovery friction), and constrain who may run content imports. Because the blocking happens on Node's single-threaded event loop, fronting Ghost with a reverse proxy that enforces per-connection and total timeouts (e.g. nginx proxy_read_timeout) can shorten the client-visible outage, but it will not stop the event loop from stalling other users - the trade-off is a hard ceiling on long-running legitimate imports. Running Ghost under a process manager with automatic restart (systemd, pm2) restores availability faster after a stall at the cost of a brief service interruption, and rate-limiting import endpoints reduces repeat-trigger abuse. These measures are temporary mitigations only; the authoritative fix is the 6.67.0 upgrade.

Affected VersionsENISA

Ghost 4.0.0, < 6.67.0

Affected Packages

npm ghost fix: 6.67.0

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in npm

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

The root cause is CWE-1333 (Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity), a classic regular-expression denial-of-service (ReDoS) pattern in Node.js. Ghost's data importer builds path-prefix matchers with unescaped user-influenced strings - for example new RegExp('^' + dir + '/') - in the image, markdown, revue, and importer-content-file handlers, so a crafted import whose file or directory names contain regex metacharacters can construct a pathological pattern that backtracks exponentially against a long input. Because Node.js runs JavaScript on a single-threaded event loop, a single catastrophic match blocks request processing and stalls the entire Ghost instance, producing an availability-only impact (CVSS C:N/I:N/A:H). The corresponding fix commit (88ae6d6d...) wraps directory names with lodash's _.escapeRegExp before interpolation, and additionally hardens the external media inliner - which legitimately accepts regex-style domain patterns such as https?://i[0-9]{1}.wp.com - by evaluating matchAll inside a node:vm context with a 1000 ms V8 execution timeout and skipping any domain pattern that times out (MEDIA_INLINER_PATTERN_TIMEOUT) so remaining posts can still be processed. The CVSS vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N confirms a network-reachable, low-complexity attack that nonetheless requires high privileges and no user interaction.

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Severity by source

Vendor (GitHub_M) PRIMARY 4.9 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI 4.9 MEDIUM

Import is submitted over the network (AV:N) and crafting the backtracking input is deterministic (AC:L), but it requires administrator privileges (PR:H); impact is availability-only (A:H, C:N/I:N).

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M).

CVSS VectorVendor: GitHub_M

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
High
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

1
Patch available
Oct 05, 2026 - 20:17 EUVD

DescriptionCVE.org

Ghost is a Node.js content management system. From 4.0.0 until 6.67.0, a crafted content import file could cause excessive CPU usage, making the Ghost server unresponsive. Exploiting this requires Administrator access. This issue is fixed in version 6.67.0.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.3%
Top 76% exploitable
Prevalence
Medium
popular open-source Node.js CMS, common but far less deployed than WordPress
Threat Intel
1
1 source
Data Quality
5 sources
Confidence: Medium
EUVD NVD CVE.org EPSS Vulnrichment GHSA GitHub

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.3%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
No
Human Impact· derived
Medium
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

24
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +24
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

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