Cubic catastrophic backtracking (ReDoS) in marked
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 1 fixed, 10 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-1333.
Summary
Marked is a markdown parser and compiler. Prior to version 4.0.10, the regular expression `block.def` may cause catastrophic backtracking against some strings and lead to a regular expression denial of service (ReDoS). Anyone who runs untrusted markdown through a vulnerable version of marked and does not use a worker with a time limit may be affected. This issue is patched in version 4.0.10. As a workaround, avoid running untrusted markdown through marked or run marked on a worker thread and set a reasonable time limit to prevent draining resources.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| markedjs | marked | before 4.0.10 | 4.0.10 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | marked (npm) | before 4.0.10 | 4.0.10 | Patch available | GHSA-rrrm-qjm4-v8hf |
- marked Vendormarkedjs Affected before 4.0.10 Fixed in 4.0.10 Patch available CNA
- marked (npm) Vendor— Affected before 4.0.10 Fixed in 4.0.10 Patch available GHSA-rrrm-qjm4-v8hf
CPE configurations NVD · 2
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:marked_project:marked:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:* | before 4.0.10 | Vulnerable | markedjs |
| cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:36:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 36 | Vulnerable | Fedoraproject |
- cpe:2.3:a:marked_project:marked:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:* Versions before 4.0.10 Vulnerable ·markedjs
- cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:36:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 36 Vulnerable ·Fedoraproject
Remediation
- Fix · CNA marked (markedjs) Fixed in 4.0.10
- Fix · GHSA-rrrm-qjm4-v8hf marked (npm) Fixed in 4.0.10 Advisory →
Red Hat 1 advisory
- RHSA-2023:3642 Released 2023-06-15 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Ceph Storage 6.1 Container security and bug fix update
- Red Hat Ceph Storage 6.1 Tools rhceph/keepalived-rhel9, rhceph/rhceph-6-dashboard-rhel9, rhceph/rhceph-6-rhel9 +3
Fixed in the same release
Records fixed by the same vendor advisory or release, as the CNA lists them.
- Advisory ·
markedjs marked — FEDORA-2022-784d729f30
2 records Highest priority Priority HIGH 2 HIGH
Other records, highest priority first
- TI-2022-06057 Exponential catastrophic backtracking (ReDoS) in markedPriority HIGH 72
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| OpenShift Service Mesh 2.0 | Affected | No fix yet |
| OpenShift Service Mesh 2.1 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
| Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
| Red Hat Ceph Storage 5 | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
| Red Hat Integration Data Virtualisation Operator | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Integration Service Registry | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat JBoss Data Grid 7 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat Ceph Storage 6.1 Tools | Fixed | RHSA-2023:3642 |
Not affected: 11 products
- Red Hat Ceph Storage 5
- Red Hat Ceph Storage 6.1 Tools
- Red Hat Data Grid 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
- Red Hat Fuse 7
- Red Hat Integration Camel K 1
- Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7
- Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform Expansion Pack
- Red Hat Single Sign-On 7
- Red Hat build of Apicurio Registry 2
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2022-21680
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-rrrm-qjm4-v8hf
References
Advisory 3
More markedjs Marked vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-30197 Marked: OOM Denial of Service via Infinite Recursion in marked Tokenizer CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2022-06057 Exponential catastrophic backtracking (ReDoS) in marked CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2018-15336 Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in markedjs/marked CVSS 4.0MEDIUM 6.9
- TI-2015-07284 The marked package before 0.3.4 for Node.js allows attackers to cause a denial of service… CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2021-04406 Denial of Service in Marked CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2017-11833 Uncontrolled resource consumption in HackerOne marked node module CVSS 3.0HIGH 7.5
Sources
- CVE-2022-21680 · CVE Program
- CVE-2022-21680 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-rrrm-qjm4-v8hf · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2022-21680 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences