CVE-2026-126192: Soup Sieve · General sibling combinator inside :has() matches untrusted HTML in quadratic time
Affects okta-awscliSource GCVE Database
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.3 Medium.
Data as of 13 Nov 2026, 21:48 UTC
Thin evidence
One scorer or none| CNA (GitHub_M) | CVSS 4.0 | 6.3 |
|---|
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:NExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 12 Nov 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 13 Nov 2026.
What to do
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
Homebrewokta-awsclipkg:brew/okta-awscliOther 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
This quadratic time behavior is expected given the design of :has() and the general sibling combinator and is not classified as a bug. Users should carefully apply :has() selectors, avoiding anchors with many children and overly general anchors like '*'. It is recommended to constrain inner selectors with combinators such as '>' or '+' to limit traversal. Projects at risk should consider scanning user input for :has usage and deny or restrict such selectors. Wrapping selector evaluation calls in timeouts can prevent long-running processes.
Description
CVE-2026-126192 describes a performance issue in Soup Sieve when using a CSS selector with a general sibling combinator inside :has(), such as div:has(a ~ b). This selector causes quadratic time complexity in the number of sibling elements when matched against untrusted HTML, potentially stalling processing for minutes on inputs with a few thousand siblings. The issue arises because the implementation performs nested scans for each candidate element without short-circuiting when the sibling is absent. This can lead to denial of service by CPU exhaustion when processing attacker-controlled HTML with such selectors.
References
- github.com/facelessuser/soupsieve/security/advisories/GHSA-4j63-6c4x-wfg4 (opens in a new tab)
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-126192 (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/facelessuser/soupsieve/pull/304 (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/facelessuser/soupsieve/commit/ffb88cca745c591224f74a8e86414a85e8f35fc0 (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/facelessuser/soupsieve (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/facelessuser/soupsieve/releases/tag/2.10 (opens in a new tab)