CVE-2026-48988
Versions 14.1.1 and below contain a denial-of-service vulnerability when typographer: true is enabled, due to quadratic (O(n^2)) processing in the smartquotes rule.
Does this matter?
Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.38%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.
Description
markdown-it is a Markdown parser. Versions 14.1.1 and below contain a denial-of-service vulnerability when typographer: true is enabled, due to quadratic (O(n^2)) processing in the smartquotes rule. The issue stems from repeatedly modifying strings with replaceAt(), which performs O(n) slicing and concatenation per quote character. This can cause excessive CPU consumption when parsing quote-heavy, user-supplied markdown and may let attackers degrade or disrupt service availability. Although typographer is disabled by default, many production apps enable it for smart typography, making the issue relevant. This issue has been fixed in version 14.2.0.
- CVSS 3.1
- 5.3 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- EPSS
- 0.38% probability · 31th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-400
- Affected
- markdown-it project/markdown-it
- Source
- security-advisories@github.com
References
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/commit/9ce2087562c45d1e5ddd9f76b990f4b3fbe040e5Patch
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/security/advisories/GHSA-6v5v-wf23-fmfqExploit, Mitigation, Vendor Advisory
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/security/advisories/GHSA-6v5v-wf23-fmfqExploit, Mitigation, Vendor Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.