5.3

CVE-2026-48988: markdown-it_project markdown-it Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

CVSS: 5.3v3.1MediumAnalyzed
AliasesUBUNTU-CVE-2026-48988DEBIAN-CVE-2026-48988CGA-5mpp-f4v5-f49c
Published 17-06-2026Last modified 18-06-2026
Open JSON

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-48988 is a medium (CVSS 5.3) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in markdown-it_project markdown-it. EPSS estimates a 0.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 36.3% of scored vulnerabilities. 1 public exploit is recorded.

Overall risk
31/100
0100
Medium · default modelHow is this calculated?
CVSS score
5.3/10
010
Medium · v3.1 (CVE.org)
EPSS score
0.43%
0%100%
Low · +0.05 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedIn no KEV catalog
RansomwareNone recordedNo known use recorded
Public exploits1github

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 0 · Related 1
CGA-H3VR-468G-VFG2

Timeline

  1. 17-06-2026
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 18-06-2026
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

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 metrics

7 scores · 7 sources · 1 version

EPSS trend

Probability

0.43%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

36%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

+0.05 pp

From 0.38% on 21-09-2026

21-09-202621-10-2026
EPSS score
0.43%

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs

Not in any of the 3 tracked catalogs.

Public exploits

1 found
  • githubUnverified

    Markdown It

    Maturity: poc

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Chainguard37 products
  • gitlab-rails-ce-18.1All versions (No fix recorded)
  • gitlab-rails-ce-18.10All versions (No fix recorded)
  • gitlab-rails-ce-18.11All versions (No fix recorded)
  • gitlab-rails-ce-18.5All versions (No fix recorded)
  • gitlab-rails-ce-18.6All versions (No fix recorded)
Wolfi3 products
  • renovate< 43.249.5-r1 | < 43.249.5-r2
  • vitess-24< 24.0.1-r4
  • vitess-24-compat< 24.0.3-r7
Debian1 product
  • node-markdown-itAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 22.2.3+dfsg+~12.2.3-5
Markdown-it1 product
Markdown-it_project1 product
Npm1 product
  • markdown-it< 14.2.0
Ubuntu1 product
  • node-markdown-itAll versions (No fix recorded)

7 vendors · 45 products

References

8 links