CVE-2026-33169
Description
A flaw was found in Active Support, a toolkit of support libraries for the Rails framework. The NumberToDelimitedConverter component, responsible for formatting numbers, uses a regular expression that can lead to a significant slowdown when processing unusually long digit strings. A remote attacker could exploit this by providing specially crafted input, potentially causing a Denial of Service (DoS) due by consuming excessive system resources.
Statement
This Moderate severity denial of service flaw in Active Support's NumberToDelimitedConverter causes excessive resource consumption when processing specially crafted long digit strings. Applications like Red Hat Satellite are susceptible to service disruption if they explicitly pass unvalidated, user-controlled input to these formatting helpers. The issue is rated Moderate rather than Important because exploitation is highly conditional and the impact is strictly limited to availability, posing no risk to data confidentiality or integrity.
Mitigation
Restrict Satellite HTTPS (443) to trusted admin and Capsule networks. Cap HTTP request and parameter size at Apache so oversized digit strings cannot reach Foreman. Rate-limit the Satellite UI/API and set CPU limits on Foreman workers.
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 | 5.9 | 5.3 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Network | Network | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | High | Low | N/A |
| Privileges Required | None | None | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | None | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | N/A |
| Confidentiality | None | None | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | High | Low | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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