Mistune ReDoS in LINK_TITLE_RE allows denial of service with crafted Markdown titles
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Attack requirements
- None
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 2 fixed, 1 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-1333.
Summary
In versions 3.0.0a1 through 3.2.0 of Mistune, there is a ReDoS (Regular Expression Denial of Service) vulnerability in `LINK_TITLE_RE` that allows an attacker who can supply Markdown for parsing to cause denial of service. The regular expression used for parsing link titles contains overlapping alternatives that can trigger catastrophic backtracking. In both the double-quoted and single-quoted branches, a backslash followed by punctuation can be matched either as an escaped punctuation sequence or as two ordinary characters, creating an ambiguous pattern inside a repeated group. If an attacker supplies Markdown containing repeated ! sequences with no closing quote, the regex engine explores an exponential number of backtracking paths. This is reachable through normal Markdown parsing of inline links and block link reference definitions. A small crafted input can therefore cause significant CPU consumption and make applications using Mistune unresponsive.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lepture | mistune | 3.0.0a1 – 3.2.0 | — | No fix listed | CNA |
| — | mistune (PyPI) | 3.0.0a1 to before 3.2.1 | 3.2.1 | Patch available | GHSA-8mp2-v27r-99xp |
- mistune Vendorlepture Affected 3.0.0a1 – 3.2.0 Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
- mistune (PyPI) Vendor— Affected 3.0.0a1 to before 3.2.1 Fixed in 3.2.1 Patch available GHSA-8mp2-v27r-99xp
Remediation
- Fix · GHSA-8mp2-v27r-99xp mistune (PyPI) Fixed in 3.2.1 Advisory →
Red Hat 2 advisories
- RHSA-2026:60520 Released 2026-08-27 · Red Hat rating CriticalRHOAI 3.4.4 - Red Hat OpenShift AI
- Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4 registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-automl-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-autorag-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-built-in-detector-rhel9 +47
- RHSA-2026:43038 Released 2026-07-21 · Red Hat rating CriticalMigration Toolkit for Applications
- Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Applications 8.2 registry.redhat.io/mta/mta-cli-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/mta/mta-solution-server-rhel9
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Applications 8.2 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:43038 |
| Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:60520 |
Not affected: 4 products
- Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Applications 8.2
- Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI)
- Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4
- Red Hat Satellite 6
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-33079
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-8mp2-v27r-99xp
- 2026-10-25 EPSS moved to the below the 50th percentile
References
More lepture vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-79440 Path traversal in Mistune include directive lets attackers read files CVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.2
- TI-2026-36755 Mistune: Potential DoS via quadratic-time parsing in parse_link_text CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-53257 Mistune has Denial of Service — RecursionError via Excessive Emphasis Markers in Markdown CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2026-42736 Mistune block_parser: quadratic-time parsing on long lists of repeated reference-link definitions CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2026-42730 Regular expression denial of service in lepture mistune CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2026-84319 Quadratic-time denial of service in Mistune emphasis processing CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
Sources
- CVE-2026-33079 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-33079 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-8mp2-v27r-99xp · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-33079 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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