CVE-2026-33079
In versions 3.0.0a1 through 3.2.0 of Mistune, there is a ReDoS (Regular Expression Denial of Service) vulnerability in `LINK_TITLE_RE` that allows an attacker who can supply Markdown for parsing to cause denial of service.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.53%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
In versions 3.0.0a1 through 3.2.0 of Mistune, there is a ReDoS (Regular Expression Denial of Service) vulnerability in `LINK_TITLE_RE` that allows an attacker who can supply Markdown for parsing to cause denial of service. The regular expression used for parsing link titles contains overlapping alternatives that can trigger catastrophic backtracking. In both the double-quoted and single-quoted branches, a backslash followed by punctuation can be matched either as an escaped punctuation sequence or as two ordinary characters, creating an ambiguous pattern inside a repeated group. If an attacker supplies Markdown containing repeated ! sequences with no closing quote, the regex engine explores an exponential number of backtracking paths. This is reachable through normal Markdown parsing of inline links and block link reference definitions. A small crafted input can therefore cause significant CPU consumption and make applications using Mistune unresponsive.
- CVSS 4.0
- 8.7 HIGHCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/M
- EPSS
- 0.53% probability · 43th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-1333
- Source
- security-advisories@github.com
References
- https://github.com/lepture/mistune/blob/df23edd60b43b639d2e6760ef9dd3d618aa11c21/src/mistune/helpers.py#L20-L25
- https://github.com/lepture/mistune/security/advisories/GHSA-8mp2-v27r-99xp
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:43038
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:60520
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-33079
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2467298
- https://github.com/lepture/mistune/security/advisories/GHSA-8mp2-v27r-99xp
- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-33079.json
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.