CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-21868

High
Published: Translated: NVD NIST

Summary

Flag Forge versions 2.3.2 and below have a Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) vulnerability in the user profile API endpoint (/api/user/[username]). The application constructs a regular expression dynamically using unescaped user input (the username parameter). An attacker can exploit this by sending a specially crafted username containing regex meta-characters (e.g., deeply nested groups or quantifiers), causing the MongoDB regex engine to consume excessive CPU resources. This can lead to Denial of Service for other users. The issue is fixed in version 2.3.3. To workaround this issue, implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block requests containing regex meta-characters in the URL path.

Risk Assessment

Risk of platform unavailability for other users due to CPU exhaustion.

Recommendation

Update Flag Forge to version 2.3.3 or later. If not possible, implement WAF rules to block requests with regex meta-characters in the URL.

Related vulnerabilities

Original NVD description (English source)

Flag Forge is a Capture The Flag (CTF) platform. Versions 2.3.2 and below have a Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) vulnerability in the user profile API endpoint (/api/user/[username]). The application constructs a regular expression dynamically using unescaped user input (the username parameter). An attacker can exploit this by sending a specially crafted username containing regex meta-characters (e.g., deeply nested groups or quantifiers), causing the MongoDB regex engine to consume excessive CPU resources. This can lead to Denial of Service for other users. The issue is fixed in version 2.3.3. To workaround this issue, implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block requests containing regex meta-characters in the URL path.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS