Summary
Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDOS)
In the npm package color-string, there is a ReDos (Regular Expression Denial of Service) vulnerability regarding an exponential time complexity for
linearly increasing input lengths for hwb() color strings.
Strings reaching more than 5000 characters would see several
milliseconds of processing time; strings reaching more than
50,000 characters began seeing 1500ms (1.5s) of processing time.
The cause was due to a the regular expression that parses
hwb() strings - specifically, the hue value - where
the integer portion of the hue value used a 0-or-more quantifier
shortly thereafter followed by a 1-or-more quantifier.
This caused excessive backtracking and a cartesian scan,
resulting in exponential time complexity given a linear
increase in input length.
Impact
The application allocates resources such as memory, threads, or file descriptors based on untrusted input without enforcing a cap. Typical impact: resource exhaustion leading to denial of service.
CVE-2021-29060 has a CVSS score of 5.3 (Medium). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (1.5.5); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2021-29060? CVE-2021-29060 is a medium-severity allocation of resources without limits or throttling vulnerability in color-string (npm), affecting versions < 1.5.5. It is fixed in 1.5.5. The application allocates resources such as memory, threads, or file descriptors based on untrusted input without enforcing a cap.
- How severe is CVE-2021-29060? CVE-2021-29060 has a CVSS score of 5.3 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of color-string are affected by CVE-2021-29060? color-string (npm) versions < 1.5.5 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2021-29060? Yes. CVE-2021-29060 is fixed in 1.5.5. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2021-29060 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2021-29060 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2021-29060 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2021-29060? Upgrade
color-stringto 1.5.5 or later.