VulnerabilityPublished 12 Feb 2026

CVE-2026-2327: markdown-it · Regular Expression Denial of Service

Affects markdown-itSource CVE Database V5

Public exploit available · CVSS 6.9 Medium : upgrade to 14.1.1 as a priority.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:05 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

6.9Medium

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

EPSS: 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 54% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 14.1.1

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P

Base metrics

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None
Vulnerable system integrity: None
Vulnerable system availability: Low
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Threat metrics

Exploit Maturity: POC

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

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable system is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed “remotely exploitable” and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files of the vulnerable system to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system 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 Vulnerable System 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 Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Exploit Maturity: POC: Based on threat intelligence sources each of the following must apply: · Proof-of-concept is publicly available · No knowledge of reported attempts to exploit this vulnerability · No knowledge of publicly available solutions used to simplify attempts to exploit the vulnerability

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 12 Feb 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: evidence found.
CVSS exploit maturity: proof of concept public
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), CVSS vector, 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

Upgrade markdown-it to 14.1.1.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
markdown-it	Affected >=13.0.0 <14.1.1	Fixed in 14.1.1

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2026-2327, organizations should upgrade markdown-it to a version later than 14.1.1 where the vulnerable regex has been corrected. If upgrading is not immediately feasible, applying input validation to restrict the length and content of markdown input can reduce the risk of triggering the ReDoS condition. Implementing rate limiting and request throttling on endpoints that process markdown content can help mitigate the impact of potential attacks. Additionally, monitoring application performance and logs for unusual CPU spikes or slowdowns during markdown processing can provide early detection of exploitation attempts. Developers should review and test any custom regex patterns used in markdown processing to avoid similar ReDoS vulnerabilities. Finally, incorporating security testing tools that detect ReDoS patterns during development can prevent future occurrences.

Description

Versions of the package markdown-it from 13.0.0 and before 14.1.1 are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) due to the use of the regex /\*+$/ in the linkify function. An attacker can supply a long sequence of * characters followed by a non-matching character, which triggers excessive backtracking and may lead to a denial-of-service condition.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2026-2327 is denial of service through resource exhaustion. Applications using vulnerable markdown-it versions that process untrusted markdown input can be forced to consume excessive CPU resources, leading to degraded performance or crashes. This can disrupt web services, content management systems, or any platform relying on markdown-it for rendering markdown content. The vulnerability does not directly compromise confidentiality or integrity but can cause availability issues, potentially affecting user experience and operational continuity. Organizations with public-facing applications that accept markdown input are at higher risk, as attackers can remotely exploit this vulnerability without authentication or user interaction. The medium severity rating indicates a significant but not critical threat, emphasizing the importance of timely patching to prevent service disruptions.

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 19 Feb 2026, 14:14 UTC

Technical details

References

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