Regular Expression Denial of Service in timespan

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

7.5 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS

• CVE-2017-16115: 1.48% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 73.94 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Affected versions of timespan are vulnerable to a regular expression denial of service when parsing dates. The amplification for this vulnerability is significant, with 50,000 characters resulting in the event loop being blocked for around 10 seconds. Recommendation No direct patch is available for this vulnerability. Currently, the best available solution is to use a functionally equivalent alternative package. It is also sufficient to ensure that user input is not being passed into timespan, or that the maximum length of such user input is drastically reduced. Limiting the input length to 150 characters should be sufficient in most cases.

Published by the source

29 Aug 2018, 23:04 UTC

Last modified by the source

8 Nov 2023, 03:59 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 12:26 UTC

1. Revision 2 · amended · 26 Oct 2026

   Amended from ghsa record GHSA-f523-2f5j-gfcg

2. Revision 1 · created · 24 Oct 2026

   Published from osv record GHSA-f523-2f5j-gfcg

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2017-16115

Advisory: Regular Expression Denial of Service in timespan
IDs: CVE-2017-16115, GHSA-f523-2f5j-gfcg
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2017-16115 (revision 2, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 12:26 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.5)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor response not established. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- npm timespan: affected <= 2.3.0

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- `npm ls timespan --all`: lists every installed copy and version, including transitive ones. Run in the project root after `npm ci`.

## Supported action
No complete vendor fix is recorded. Follow the primary source's mitigation guidance and check this record again before closing anything.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on timespan.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-f523-2f5j-gfcg (OSV record GHSA-f523-2f5j-gfcg lists affected ranges: npm timespan >=0 <=2.3.0)
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-f523-2f5j-gfcg (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-f523-2f5j-gfcg lists affected ranges: npm timespan >=0 <=2.3.0)

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