CVE-2022-21681

Exponential catastrophic backtracking (ReDoS) in marked

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: January 14, 2022 at 12:00 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 04:26 AM UTC
3 products affected across 3 vendorsFedoraMarkedMarked

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 3%
SSVC
PoC

Description

Marked is a markdown parser and compiler. Prior to version 4.0.10, the regular expression `inline.reflinkSearch` may cause catastrophic backtracking against some strings and lead to a denial of service (DoS). 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.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 4.0.10
Affected range stops below 4.0.10, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 4.0.10
Affected range stops below 4.0.10, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCPoCAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.5HIGHGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-400CWE-1333

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