CVE-2026-102990
Description
A flaw was found in basic-ftp. A malicious or compromised FTP server can cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by returning specially crafted Unix directory listings to the client. Inefficient regular expression processing during directory parsing leads to excessive CPU consumption, blocking the application event loop and causing the process to become unresponsive.
Statement
This vulnerability is rated as Important because connecting to an untrusted or hostile remote FTP endpoint allows unauthenticated actors to trigger catastrophic CPU exhaustion, halting application responsiveness. In Red Hat solutions embedding this client library, parsing manipulated directory contents monopolizes the single-threaded Node.js event engine, causing an outright denial of service across all concurrent operations. Risk is confined to workflows where the client actively queries and lists directories on untrusted external file transfer services.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 7.5 | N/A | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | N/A |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | N/A |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | N/A |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU)
Attackers can create crafted inputs that intentionally cause the regular expression to use excessive backtracking in a way that causes the CPU consumption to spike.
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