HedgeDoc: Denial-of-service via YAML alias expansion in note frontmatter
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Attack requirements
- None
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-400.
Summary
HedgeDoc is an open source, real-time, collaborative, markdown notes application. Prior to version 1.11.0, HedgeDoc was vulnerable to a YAML alias bomb due to unsafe processing of the note frontmatter. HedgeDoc parsed frontmatter with js-yaml.load (js-yaml v3) via @hedgedoc/meta-marked, which resolved YAML anchor aliases. A compact malicious payload could therefore expand into a huge object structure, consuming excessive CPU. This expansion ran on every request to the publish view (/s/<shortid>) and, when placed under the opengraph key, the editor view (/<noteId>). A ten-level alias bomb could block the single Node.js event loop for roughly 235 seconds per request, causing concurrent requests to hang or drop and rendering the instance unavailable (DoS). Because the note was stored in the database, the impact survived process restarts until the note was removed. toobusy-js did not reliably mitigate the worst cases, as the event loop was saturated before the middleware could respond. This issue was fixed in version 1.11.0.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA hedgedoc (hedgedoc) Fixed in 1.11.0
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-58486
References
More hedgedoc vulnerabilities
- TI-2023-19867 HedgeDoc API allows to hide existing notes CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.2
- TI-2024-30379 MySQL & free URL mode allows to hide existing notes in hedgedoc CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.5
- TI-2021-10188 PDF export allows arbitrary file reads CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 10.0
- TI-2020-16108 Stored XSS in mermaid diagrams CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-42092 HedgeDoc: Rate-limit bypass via CF-Connecting-IP header spoofing CVSS 4.0MEDIUM 6.9
- TI-2021-10211 Improper Neutralization of Script-Related HTML Tags in Notes CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.1
Sources
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences