Low severity · published Oct 19, 2026
CVE-2026-111766
markdown-it: Quadratic-time denial of service in inline HTML parsing with html enabled
3.7
CVSS
0.4%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
markdown-it is a Markdown parser. Prior to 14.3.3 and 15.0.3, when the html option or commonmark preset is enabled and the constructs occur inside a paragraph, attacker-controlled Markdown containing repeated unterminated inline HTML comments, processing instructions, declarations, or CDATA sections reaches src/rules_inline/html_inline.ts. Its HTML_TAG_RE match searches the remaining suffix for the appropriate terminator; when no terminator is present, parsing advances to the next opener and repeats the match over overlapping input, causing quadratic processing and denial of service through event-loop blocking or an unresponsive browser main thread. HTML blocks and the default HTML-disabled configuration are not affected by these payloads. This issue is fixed in versions 14.3.3 and 15.0.3.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.4% · higher than 37% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
MA
markdown-it · markdown-it
>= 15.0.0, < 15.0.3; < 14.3.3 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-111766
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-111766
github.com
https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/commit/928bc8c11ded60181c0e7fc5aa954eec582e8e79
github.com
https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/commit/d99f48839d37af6fd8a2617516c43dab90755503
github.com
https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/releases/tag/14.3.3
github.com
https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/releases/tag/15.0.3
github.com
https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/security/advisories/GHSA-vfgh-jcmw-g37q
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