ModSecurity: PCRE2 `@rxGlobal` match-limit errors are converted to no-match

Overview

ModSecurity is an open source, cross platform web application firewall (WAF) engine for Apache, IIS and Nginx. From 3.0.5 until 3.0.17, the PCRE2 implementation of @rxGlobal in src/utils/regex.cc converts pcre2_match match-limit errors into an ordinary no-match result instead of propagating a non-OK RegexResult. When attacker-controlled input exhausts SecPcreMatchLimit, rules that rely on MSC_PCRE_LIMITS_EXCEEDED or its TX compatibility indicator do not run, so a request that should be rejected can pass through the WAF. The issue affects PCRE2 deployments that use @rxGlobal with a limit-exhaustible expression and a compensating rule; it is not a universal WAF bypass. This issue is fixed in version 3.0.17.

Affected

• ModSecurity >= 3.0.5, < 3.0.17

Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.