CVE-2020-15598

What it is

Trustwave ModSecurity 3.x through 3.0.4 allows denial of service via a special request. NOTE: The discoverer reports "Trustwave has signaled they are disputing our claims." The CVE suggests that there is a security issue with how ModSecurity handles regular expressions that can result in a Denial of Service condition. The vendor does not consider this as a security issue because1) there is no default configuration issue here. An attacker would need to know that a rule using a potentially problematic regular expression was in place, 2) the attacker would need to know the basic nature of the regular expression itself to exploit any resource issues. It's well known that regular expression usage can be taxing on system resources regardless of the use case. It is up to the administrator to decide on when it is appropriate to trade resources for potential security benefit

At a glance

Exploitability

Can be exploited over the network without logging in. High risk of service disruption.

Exploit odds

2.9% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (EPSS).

Fix

A patch, advisory or fixed version is referenced. Upgrade or apply it.

Timeline

1. 2020-10-06 14:15 UTC PublishedDisclosed publicly on CVE.org and NVD
2. 2026-06-17 02:56 UTC Last updatedMost recent change to the record

Why it ranks here

• Exploited in the wild: no, CISA does not list it.
• Exploit odds: 2.9% in the next 30 days (EPSS).
• Severity: 7.5 HIGH (CVSS).
• Fix: a patch or advisory is linked.

Details

Published

2020-10-06 14:15 UTC

Last modified

2026-06-17 02:56 UTC

Exploit probability

2.9% · EPSS, next 30 days

Weakness

CWE-835

Record status

Modified

Affected

• Owasp Modsecurity ≤ 3.0.4
• Debian Linux 10.0

Attack profile CVSS 3.1 · 7.5

Attack vector

Network

Complexity

Low

Privileges needed

None

User interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

None

Integrity

None

Availability

High

Is it in your code?

Hand this to your coding agent. It searches your project for the affected products and checks versions. Nothing leaves your machine.

Read https://cve-list.com/agent/cve/CVE-2020-15598.md and follow it. Check whether this project is affected by CVE-2020-15598. Read only. Don't change anything and don't upload my code. Tell me yes, no or not sure, with the file as proof.

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