CVE-2026-111759

markdown-it: Quadratic complexity in smartquotes with unmatched closing quotes

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: October 19, 2026 at 05:39 PM UTC
Updated: October 19, 2026 at 09:13 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorIT Project Markdown IT

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.6%
SSVC
PoC

Description

markdown-it is a Markdown parser. Prior to 14.3.2 and 15.0.2, when typographer: true is enabled, specially crafted Markdown can cause quadratic processing time in the smartquotes rule, potentially leading to denial of service in applications processing untrusted input. Many opening double quotes followed by unmatched closing single quotes cause repeated scans of the entire opener stack. The same issue occurs with the quote types reversed. The default configuration (typographer: false) is not affected, but this option is enabled with high probability. This issue is fixed in versions 14.3.2 and 15.0.2.

Affected

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

v < 14.3.2>= 15.0.0, < 15.0.2

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

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

StatusAWAITING ANALYSIS
CWE
CWE-400CWE-407

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