CVE-2026-68749: rrrene html_sanitize_ex · Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity Vulnerability
Source GCVE Database
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.2 High : upgrade to 1.5.3 or 1.4.5 soon.
Data as of 10 Nov 2026, 23:24 UTC
- EPSS
- 0.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 56% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
- Patch
- Available – fixed in 1.5.3, 1.4.5
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:NExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 6 Aug 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: 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 10 Nov 2026.
What to do
Upgrade html_sanitize_ex to 1.5.3 or 1.4.5.
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| rrrenehtml_sanitize_ex | Affected
| Fixed in
|
| rrrenehtml_sanitize_ex | Affected
| Fixed in
|
| rrrenehtml_sanitize_ex | Affected
| Fixed in– |
Hexhtml_sanitize_expkg:hex/html_sanitize_exOther 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
If you cannot patch yet, consider limiting the size of CSS input passed to the sanitizer or applying external rate limiting to mitigate potential denial of service. Monitor application responsiveness to detect potential exploitation attempts.
Description
CVE-2026-68749 is a high-severity vulnerability in the rrrene html_sanitize_ex library that causes inefficient regular expression complexity in its CSS scrubber. An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this by sending a long CSS declaration that triggers excessive CPU usage during HTML sanitization, leading to denial of service. The vulnerability arises from a regex pattern that matches property names greedily without length limits, causing quadratic time complexity. This results in CPU exhaustion but does not lead to data disclosure or modification. The affected versions are from 0.3.1 up to but not including 1.5.3, including 1.5.0-rc.0.
References
- github.com/rrrene/html_sanitize_ex/security/advisories/GHSA-4cx2-987x-rr2x (opens in a new tab)
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-68749 (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/rrrene/html_sanitize_ex/commit/4f4bd9eb254881462c0461fbab74b29188c2c133 (opens in a new tab)
- cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-68749.html (opens in a new tab)
- osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-68749 (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/rrrene/html_sanitize_ex/commit/b673df33ddf982c8bd0a8bd6348aa247080b3b14 (opens in a new tab)