CVE-2026-111759
Prior to 14.3.2 and 15.0.2, when typographer: true is enabled, specially crafted Markdown can cause quadratic processing time in the smartquotes rule, potentially leading to denial of service in applications processing untrusted input.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.59%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
markdown-it is a Markdown parser. Prior to 14.3.2 and 15.0.2, when typographer: true is enabled, specially crafted Markdown can cause quadratic processing time in the smartquotes rule, potentially leading to denial of service in applications processing untrusted input. Many opening double quotes followed by unmatched closing single quotes cause repeated scans of the entire opener stack. The same issue occurs with the quote types reversed. The default configuration (typographer: false) is not affected, but this option is enabled with high probability. This issue is fixed in versions 14.3.2 and 15.0.2.
- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- EPSS
- 0.59% probability · 48th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-400, CWE-407
- Source
- security-advisories@github.com
EPSS moved from 0.6% on 20 October 2026 to 0.6% on 26 October 2026.
References
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/commit/1b379c1b6d0522421bd1a51b77337c79af2c8670
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/commit/cf27366035edf9196667110c47d9d67b030a4152
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/commit/daf5a3c32303e5d9de01b12eeb725fb5990b8162
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/releases/tag/14.3.2
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/releases/tag/15.0.2
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/security/advisories/GHSA-r7fv-28h4-cvq7
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/security/advisories/GHSA-r7fv-28h4-cvq7
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.