8.7

CVE-2026-83614: xmldom: Quadratic-time parsing via the malformed-input recovery path — `parseElementStartPart` re-scan and `normalize()` adjacent-text merge

Deferred
AliasesUBUNTU-CVE-2026-83614DEBIAN-CVE-2026-83614GHSA-93r5-fhx6-vmg9
Published 01-09-2026Last modified 01-09-2026

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-83614 is a high (CVSS 8.7) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in xmldom. EPSS estimates a 0.59% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 48.2% of scored vulnerabilities.

Priority
Prioritisesevere

Severe, CVSS 8.7 (CVE.org); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources; EPSS 1% (FIRST, 03-11-2026)

Source freshness unavailable

How is this decided?
CVSS score
8.7/10
010
High · v4.0 (CVE.org)
EPSS score
0.59%
0%100%
Low · 0.00 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedNot listed by any tracked catalog.
RansomwareNot flaggedNo ransomware use recorded.
Public exploits0No public exploits recorded

Timeline

  1. 01-09-2026
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 01-09-2026
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

xmldom is a pure JavaScript W3C standard-based (XML DOM Level 2 Core) DOMParser and XMLSerializer module. Prior to @xmldom/xmldom versions 0.8.15 and 0.9.12, and in xmldom versions 0.3.0 through 0.6.0, two independent quadratic paths can cause denial of service. In lib/sax.js, parseElementStartPart repeatedly rescans a malformed tag name to the next > during single-character recovery; in lib/dom.js, normalize() repeatedly removes and appends adjacent text nodes, causing quadratic reindexing and string rebuilding. The first path is reachable through default DOMParser.parseFromString() processing, while the second is also reachable through a direct normalize() call on a programmatically constructed DOM, and endDocument invokes that normalization after parsing. This issue is fixed in @xmldom/xmldom versions 0.8.15 and 0.9.12; no fixed version is available for xmldom.

CVSS metrics

6 scores · 6 sources · 1 version

EPSS trend

Probability

0.59%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

48%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

No change 0.00 pp

From 0.59% on 04-10-2026

04-10-202603-11-2026

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEV

Not in the CISA KEV catalog.

ENISA CNW

Not in the ENISA CNW catalog.

CIRCL

Not in the CIRCL catalog.

Public exploits

0 found

No public exploits indexed.

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Version check

Known conditions: network-reachable, no authentication, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.

Chainguard3 products
  • gitlab-rails-ce-18.11< 18.11.11-r2
  • gitlab-rails-ce-19.0All versions (No fix recorded) | < 19.0.10-r0
  • gitlab-rails-ce-fips-19.0< 19.0.9-r3
@xmldom1 product
  • xmldom≥ 0.7.0, < 0.8.15 | ≥ 0.9.0, < 0.9.12
Debian1 product
  • node-xmldomAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 0.9.12-1
Npm1 product
  • xmldom≥ 0.3.0, ≤ 0.6.0
Ubuntu1 product
  • node-xmldomAll versions (No fix recorded)
Xmldom1 product
  • xmldom≥ 0.3.0, ≤ 0.6.0 | ≥ 0.7.0, < 0.8.15 | ≥ 0.9.0, < 0.9.12

6 vendors · 8 products

References

13 links
Show all 13 references