diff --git a/java/ql/lib/semmle/code/java/regex/regex.qll b/java/ql/lib/semmle/code/java/regex/regex.qll
index aca51b74a03..7c24892ff2e 100644
--- a/java/ql/lib/semmle/code/java/regex/regex.qll
+++ b/java/ql/lib/semmle/code/java/regex/regex.qll
@@ -472,12 +472,19 @@ abstract class RegexString extends StringLiteral {
     )
   }
 
-  private predicate flagGroupStart(int start, int end, string c) {
+  private predicate flagGroupStart(int start, int end) {
     this.isGroupStart(start) and
     this.getChar(start + 1) = "?" and
-    end = start + 3 and
-    c = this.getChar(start + 2) and
-    c in ["i", "m", "s", "u", "x", "U"]
+    this.getChar(start + 2) in ["i", "m", "s", "u", "x", "U"] and
+    end = start + 2
+  }
+
+  private predicate flagGroup(int start, int end, string c) {
+    exists(int inStart, int inEnd |
+      this.flagGroupStart(start, inStart) and
+      this.groupContents(start, end, inStart, inEnd) and
+      this.getChar([inStart .. inEnd - 1]) = c
+    )
   }
 
   /**
@@ -485,7 +492,7 @@ abstract class RegexString extends StringLiteral {
    * it is defined by a prefix.
    */
   string getModeFromPrefix() {
-    exists(string c | this.flagGroupStart(_, _, c) |
+    exists(string c | this.flagGroup(_, _, c) |
       c = "i" and result = "IGNORECASE"
       or
       c = "m" and result = "MULTILINE"
@@ -540,7 +547,7 @@ abstract class RegexString extends StringLiteral {
   private predicate groupStart(int start, int end) {
     this.nonCapturingGroupStart(start, end)
     or
-    this.flagGroupStart(start, end, _)
+    this.flagGroupStart(start, end)
     or
     this.namedGroupStart(start, end)
     or
diff --git a/java/ql/test/query-tests/security/CWE-730/ExpRedosTest.java b/java/ql/test/query-tests/security/CWE-730/ExpRedosTest.java
index 51eec6e74e7..4a31060850b 100644
--- a/java/ql/test/query-tests/security/CWE-730/ExpRedosTest.java
+++ b/java/ql/test/query-tests/security/CWE-730/ExpRedosTest.java
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ class ExpRedosTest {
         "(?s)(.|\\n)*!", // $ hasExpRedos
 
         // NOT GOOD; attack: "\n".repeat(100) + "."
-        "(?is)(.|\\n)*!", // $ MISSING: hasExpRedos
+        "(?is)(.|\\n)*!", // $ hasExpRedos
 
         // GOOD
         "([\\w.]+)*",