CVE-2026-33532: yaml is vulnerable to Stack Overflow via deeply nested YAML collections

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-33532 is a medium (CVSS 4.3) Uncontrolled Recursion vulnerability in eemeli yaml. EPSS estimates a 0.49% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 42% of scored vulnerabilities. 1 public exploit is recorded.

Timeline

1. 26-03-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 30-03-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

`yaml` is a YAML parser and serialiser for JavaScript. Parsing a YAML document with a version of `yaml` on the 1.x branch prior to 1.10.3 or on the 2.x branch prior to 2.8.3 may throw a RangeError due to a stack overflow. The node resolution/composition phase uses recursive function calls without a depth bound. An attacker who can supply YAML for parsing can trigger a `RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded` with a small payload (~2–10 KB). The `RangeError` is not a `YAMLParseError`, so applications that only catch YAML-specific errors will encounter an unexpected exception type. Depending on the host application's exception handling, this can fail requests or terminate the Node.js process. Flow sequences allow deep nesting with minimal bytes (2 bytes per level: one `[` and one `]`). On the default Node.js stack, approximately 1,000–5,000 levels of nesting (2–10 KB input) exhaust the call stack. The exact threshold is environment-dependent (Node.js version, stack size, call stack depth at invocation). Note: the library's `Parser` (CST phase) uses a stack-based iterative approach and is not affected. Only the compose/resolve phase uses actual call-stack recursion. All three public parsing APIs are affected: `YAML.parse()`, `YAML.parseDocument()`, and `YAML.parseAllDocuments()`. Versions 1.10.3 and 2.8.3 contain a patch.

• CWE-674Uncontrolled RecursionThe product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.