⚠ Reference material — not professional advice. Test in staging, back up first, verify against your specific version. Use your own judgment for your environment.
● High · CVSS 8.7

How to Fix CVE-2026-35213: Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in @hapi/content HTTP header parsing

Other vulnerabilities in the same area that are worth patching alongside this one:

*By Sai Kiran Pandrala*

Last verified: 2026-05-25

⚡ At a glance
SeverityCVSS 8.7, High
Actively exploited?No
AffectedHapijs content (< 6.0.1)
Fixed in6.0.1
Type (CWE)CWE-1333: CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity

CVE-2026-35213 is a regular expression denial of service (redos) in @hapi/content http header parsing in Hapijs content. The fix is to upgrade to 6.0.1 and apply the runnable commands below.

What is CVE-2026-35213?

@hapi/content provided HTTP Content-* headers parsing. All versions of @hapi/content through 6.0.0 are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) via crafted HTTP header values. Three regular expressions used to parse Content-Type and Content-Disposition headers contain patterns susceptible to catastrophic backtracking.

In practical terms, a successful attacker gets a denial-of-service condition that crashes or hangs the affected service. There is no confirmed in-the-wild exploitation listed in CISA's KEV catalog at the time of writing, but the CVSS rating still warrants prompt patching.

Am I affected?

You are affected if you run Hapijs content at a version listed in the Affected row above. Probe your installed build with the commands below.


# Confirm the installed version via your package manager
dpkg -l | grep -i content   # Debian/Ubuntu
rpm -qa | grep -i content   # RHEL/CentOS/Rocky

How to fix CVE-2026-35213

The primary fix is to upgrade to the patched build listed in the Fixed in row above (6.0.1). Pick the platform that matches your install and run the commands below.

Linux (Ubuntu / Debian)


sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade content
# Confirm the installed version meets or exceeds 6.0.1
dpkg -s content | grep ^Version

Linux (RHEL / CentOS / Rocky)


sudo dnf upgrade --security content -y
rpm -q content

Windows (PowerShell, admin)


winget upgrade --id 'Hapijs.content' --silent --accept-source-agreements --accept-package-agreements
# If winget doesn't know the product, download the patched installer from the vendor and:
Start-Process -FilePath "$env:TEMP\content-6.0.1.msi" -ArgumentList '/qn /norestart' -Wait

PowerShell script (Windows): detect, back up, upgrade, verify, log


# Run as Administrator
$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
$log = "$env:ProgramData\content-Patch-CVE-2026-35213.log"
function Write-Log($msg) { "$(Get-Date -Format s)  $msg" | Tee-Object -FilePath $log -Append }

Write-Log "Starting CVE-2026-35213 remediation for Hapijs content"

# 1. Detect: replace the path/version probe with one valid for your install
$installed = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product |
    Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*content*' } |
    Select-Object -First 1 -ExpandProperty Version)
Write-Log "Detected version: $installed"

if (-not $installed) {
    Write-Log "Product not installed on this host; nothing to do."
    return
}
if ([version]$installed -ge [version]'6.0.1') {
    Write-Log "Already at fixed version $installed; no action needed."
    return
}

# 2. Backup configuration to a timestamped folder
$backup = "$env:ProgramData\content-Backup-$(Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd-HHmm)"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $backup -Force | Out-Null
$src = "$env:ProgramFiles\Hapijs\content"
if (Test-Path $src) { Copy-Item -Path $src -Destination $backup -Recurse -Force }
Write-Log "Backed up config to $backup"

# 3. Apply the patched installer
$installer = "$env:TEMP\content-6.0.1.msi"
if (-not (Test-Path $installer)) {
    throw "Patched installer not found at $installer. Stage it from your software repo first."
}
Start-Process msiexec.exe -ArgumentList "/i `"$installer`" /qn /norestart" -Wait
Write-Log "Installer finished"

# 4. Verify
$verify = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product |
    Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*content*' } |
    Select-Object -First 1 -ExpandProperty Version)
if ([version]$verify -ge [version]'6.0.1') {
    Write-Log "SUCCESS: now at $verify (>= 6.0.1)"
} else {
    Write-Log "FAILURE: still at $verify after install"
    exit 1
}

Bash script (Linux): detect, back up, upgrade, verify, log


#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
LOG=/var/log/content-patch-cve-2026-35213.log
log()  { echo "$(date -Iseconds)  $*" | tee -a "$LOG"; }

log "Starting CVE-2026-35213 remediation for Hapijs content"

# 1. Detect installed version (works for deb and rpm packages)
if command -v dpkg >/dev/null && dpkg -s content >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    CURRENT=$(dpkg-query -W -f='${Version}' content)
    PKG_MGR=apt
elif command -v rpm >/dev/null && rpm -q content >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    CURRENT=$(rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}' content)
    PKG_MGR=dnf
else
    log "content not installed via apt or rpm; check your package manager or vendor instructions."
    exit 0
fi
log "Detected: content=$CURRENT (manager=$PKG_MGR)"

# 2. Backup config
BACKUP=/var/backups/content-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M)
mkdir -p "$BACKUP"
for d in /etc/content /etc/${pkg%%-*} ; do
    [ -d "$d" ] && cp -a "$d" "$BACKUP/" && log "Backed up $d to $BACKUP"
done

# 3. Upgrade
if [ "$PKG_MGR" = apt ]; then
    sudo apt-get update -y
    sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade -y content
else
    sudo dnf upgrade --security -y content
fi

# 4. Verify
if [ "$PKG_MGR" = apt ]; then
    NEW=$(dpkg-query -W -f='${Version}' content)
else
    NEW=$(rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}' content)
fi
log "After upgrade: $NEW"
log "Done. Compare $NEW against 6.0.1 and restart the affected service if needed."

If you cannot patch immediately

These are runnable hardening commands. They reduce blast radius but they are not a replacement for the vendor patch.

Rate-limit and watchdog the affected service


sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW -m limit --limit 50/s -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW -j DROP

How to verify the fix worked

Run the version probe again and confirm the running build matches the Fixed in row above.


dpkg -l | grep -i "content"   # Debian/Ubuntu
rpm -qa | grep -i "content"   # RHEL/CentOS/Rocky

Expected output: the package version should meet or exceed 6.0.1.

Re-run any vulnerability scanner you used previously and confirm the finding for CVE-2026-35213 has cleared. Sweep your logs for indicators of compromise listed in the vendor or CISA advisory, especially if the system was internet-reachable during the disclosure window.

Frequently asked questions

Is CVE-2026-35213 being actively exploited?

Not at the time of writing. It is not listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. That status can change, so monitor the vendor advisory and the KEV catalog if the system is exposed.

How severe is CVE-2026-35213?

CVSS rates it 8.7 (High). Use that score to set your patch priority alongside the other items in your queue.

Do I have to take content offline to apply the patch?

It depends on the deployment. High-availability or clustered installs can usually patch one node at a time with no full outage. Standalone installs typically need a short restart. Always follow the vendor's documented upgrade steps.

What if my vulnerability scanner still flags CVE-2026-35213 after I patch?

Re-run the scan after a service restart, then confirm the scanner's plugin set is up to date. Some scanners detect by banner version only and lag the official fix metadata by a release.

References

*Written by Sai Kiran Pandrala. Last verified 2026-05-25. Sourced from the official vendor advisory, the NVD record, and the CISA KEV listing. Always confirm against the vendor advisory before applying changes in production.*