High

Protego has exponential backtracking ReDoS in robots.txt URL wildcard matching

  • Disclosed: 28.08.2026
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 15:18

Problem description

Protego constructs regular expressions to match URLs against robots.txt Allow: and Disallow: directives, see protego._urlpattern._URLPattern._prepare_pattern_for_regex(). Every * in the directive value is translated into a lazy .*? regex piece, thus a specially crafted directive value with many asterisks may produce a regex that freezes the parser due to exponential backtracking.

Impact

Parsing a specially crafted robots.txt with protego.Protego.parse() and then trying to match an URL with protego.Protego.can_fetch() results in the latter call not returning for a period dependent on the length of the URL.

Proof of concept

python
from protego import Protego

robotstxt = f"""
User-agent: *
Disallow: /{"*1" * 12}*Z
"""
rp = Protego.parse(robotstxt)
url = "/" + "1" * 60
rp.can_fetch(url, "mybot")  # freezes

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Python (PyPI) protego < 0.6.2 0.6.2

References

CVSS score -
CVSS vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-1333, CWE-400
Platform
Python (PyPI)
Package
protego
Disclosed
28.08.2026
Updated
11.10.2026 15:18

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - PYSEC-2026-3906 - PyPA Advisory Database; CC BY 4.0

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-wjmf-p669-5m5p - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: protego

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Python (PyPI)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

This is the only known vulnerability of this package.

Know which vulnerabilities affect your application

With the DockRay integration and software inventory enabled, DockRay checks reported component versions against known vulnerabilities and notifies you about confirmed matches. Coverage depends on the supported technology and available advisory data.

Connect your application
DockRay newsletter

Application security in your inbox

Important vulnerabilities, actionable guidance and practical advice for your applications. Choose your technologies and follow what matters to your project.

  • A daily digest of new vulnerabilities, critical ones included.
  • Notifications about important updates.
  • Practical advice on application security and monitoring.

Leave empty to receive updates for every technology.

Free to subscribe. Unsubscribe with one click in any email.