GHSA-3653-68v6-rq57
HAPI FHIR: ReDoS via FHIRPath matches()/replaceMatches() in FHIR Validator HTTP Endpoint
Quick fix
GHSA-3653-68v6-rq57 — ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.dstu2: upgrade to the fixed version with the command below.
# pom.xml: bump <version>6.9.7</version> for ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.dstu2Details
## Summary
All implementations of FHIRPathEngine accept arbitrary FHIRPath expressions and evaluate them without input validation. The FHIRPath functions `matches()`, `matchesFull()`, and `replaceMatches()` pass user-controlled regular expressions directly to Java's `Pattern.compile()` and `String.replaceAll()` without complexity checks or timeouts. An attacker can send a resource containing an evil regex pattern that causes catastrophic backtracking, exhausting system resources, and causing Denial-of-Service.
## Details
The vulnerability exists in regex execution in FHIRPathEngine implementations across multiple code modules. For example the org.hl7.fhir.r5 module:
**Entry point 1 — `FHIRPathEngine.java:5929` (R5 `funcMatches`):** ```java private List<Base> funcMatches(ExecutionContext context, List<Base> focus, ExpressionNode exp) { String sw = convertToString(swb); // attacker-controlled regex pattern // ... Pattern p = Pattern.compile("(?s)" + sw); // VULNERABLE: no complexity check Matcher m = p.matcher(st); // no timeout boolean ok = m.find(); ```
**Entry point 2 — `FHIRPathEngine.java:5951` (R5 `funcMatchesFull`):** ```java Pattern p = Pattern.compile("(?s)" + sw); // VULNERABLE: same pattern Matcher m = p.matcher(st); boolean ok = m.matches(); ```
**Entry point 3 — `FHIRPathEngine.java:5120` (R5 `funcReplaceMatches`):** ```java result.add(new StringType(convertToString(focus.get(0)) .replaceAll(regex, repl)).noExtensions()); // VULNERABLE: replaceAll uses Pattern internally ```
The same vulnerabilities exist in the dstu2, dstu2016may, dstu3, r4, and r4b modules, and the FHIRPathEngine is used in the validation module functionality.
**Why this is exploitable:** - No timeout mechanism covers FHIRPath evaluation — the `ValidationTimeout` class only protects `InstanceValidator` operations, not `evaluateFhirPath()` - Java's `Pattern.compile()` with a pattern like `(a+)+$` against input `"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"` causes exponential backtracking (O(2^n) time complexity)
## Impact
- **CPU Exhaustion:** The exponential backtracking in Java's regex engine consumes 100% of a CPU core for the duration of the hang (effectively infinite for sufficiently long input strings) for callers of FHIRPathEngine.
Are you affected?
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Affected packages
0Fixed in: 6.9.7# pom.xml: bump <version>6.9.7</version> for ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.dstu20Fixed in: 6.9.7# pom.xml: bump <version>6.9.7</version> for ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.dstu2016may0Fixed in: 6.9.7# pom.xml: bump <version>6.9.7</version> for ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.dstu30Fixed in: 6.9.7# pom.xml: bump <version>6.9.7</version> for ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.r40Fixed in: 6.9.7# pom.xml: bump <version>6.9.7</version> for ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.r4b0Fixed in: 6.9.7# pom.xml: bump <version>6.9.7</version> for ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.r50Fixed in: 6.9.7# pom.xml: bump <version>6.9.7</version> for ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.validation0Fixed in: 6.9.7# pom.xml: bump <version>6.9.7</version> for ca.uhn.hapi.fhir:org.hl7.fhir.validation.cli