VulnerabilityPublished 15 Oct 2024Updated 14 Nov 2024

CVE-2024-44337: markdown

Affects markdownSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.1 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.1Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 42% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: Low
Availability: Low

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 15 Oct 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Gogithub.com/gomarkdown/markdown`pkg:golang/github.com/gomarkdown/markdown`Other threats	Affected–	Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2024-44337, organizations should update the gomarkdown/markdown library to at least pseudoversion v0.0.0-20240729232818-a2a9c4f or later, which includes the fix in commit a2a9c4f76ef5a5c32108e36f7c47f8d310322252. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, review and patch the paragraph function in parser/block.go to prevent infinite loops when processing Markdown input. Additionally, implement input validation and sanitization to restrict or filter untrusted Markdown content before parsing. Employ rate limiting and resource usage monitoring on services that parse Markdown to detect and mitigate potential abuse. Consider sandboxing or isolating Markdown parsing components to limit the impact of hangs or crashes. Finally, maintain an inventory of applications using this library to ensure all affected systems are identified and remediated promptly.

Description

The package `github.com/gomarkdown/markdown` is a Go library for parsing Markdown text and rendering as HTML. Prior to pseudoversion `v0.0.0-20240729232818-a2a9c4f`, which corresponds with commit `a2a9c4f76ef5a5c32108e36f7c47f8d310322252`, there was a logical problem in the paragraph function of the parser/block.go file, which allowed a remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition by providing a tailor-made input that caused an infinite loop, causing the program to hang and consume resources indefinitely. Submit `a2a9c4f76ef5a5c32108e36f7c47f8d310322252` contains fixes to this problem.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2024-44337 is denial of service through resource exhaustion caused by an infinite loop in Markdown parsing. Organizations that incorporate the vulnerable gomarkdown/markdown library in their Go applications, especially those processing untrusted Markdown input (e.g., content management systems, documentation platforms, chat applications, or any user-generated content systems), risk application hangs and service disruptions. This can degrade user experience, cause downtime, and potentially affect dependent services. While the vulnerability does not lead to data disclosure or privilege escalation, the availability impact can be significant in high-traffic environments or automated processing pipelines. The attack requires the ability to submit malicious Markdown content, so exposure depends on the application's input validation and access controls. No known exploits in the wild reduce immediate risk, but the medium severity score and ease of triggering the infinite loop warrant prompt remediation to prevent potential abuse.

References

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 26 Feb 2026, 07:50 UTC

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats