Github
CVE-2023-26485
HIGH
Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
Lifecycle Timeline
1DescriptionNVD
cmark-gfm is GitHub's fork of cmark, a CommonMark parsing and rendering library and program in C. A polynomial time complexity issue in cmark-gfm may lead to unbounded resource exhaustion and subsequent denial of service. This CVE covers quadratic complexity issues when parsing text which leads with either large numbers of _ characters. This issue has been addressed in version 0.29.0.gfm.10. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should validate that their input comes from trusted sources.
Impact
A polynomial time complexity issue in cmark-gfm may lead to unbounded resource exhaustion and subsequent denial of service.
Proof of concept
$ ~/cmark-gfm$ python3 -c 'pad = "_" * 100000; print(pad + "." + pad, end="")' | time ./build/src/cmark-gfm --to plaintextIncreasing the number 10000 in the above commands causes the running time to increase quadratically.
Patches
This vulnerability have been patched in 0.29.0.gfm.10.
Note on cmark and cmark-gfm
XXX: TBD
cmark-gfm is a fork of cmark that adds the GitHub Flavored Markdown extensions. The two codebases have diverged over time, but share a common core. These bugs affect both cmark and cmark-gfm.
Credit
We would like to thank @gravypod for reporting this vulnerability.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_complexity
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Open an issue in github/cmark-gfm
AnalysisAI
cmark-gfm is GitHub's fork of cmark, a CommonMark parsing and rendering library and program in C. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
Technical ContextAI
This vulnerability is classified as Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400), which allows attackers to cause denial of service by exhausting system resources. cmark-gfm is GitHub's fork of cmark, a CommonMark parsing and rendering library and program in C. A polynomial time complexity issue in cmark-gfm may lead to unbounded resource exhaustion and subsequent denial of service. This CVE covers quadratic complexity issues when parsing text which leads with either large numbers of _ characters. This issue has been addressed in version 0.29.0.gfm.10. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should validate that their input comes from trusted sources.
Impact A polynomial time complexity issue in cmark-gfm may lead to unbounded resource exhaustion and subsequent denial of service.
Proof of concept ` $ ~/cmark-gfm$ python3 -c 'pad = "_" * 100000; print(pad + "." + pad, end="")' | time ./build/src/cmark-gfm --to plaintext ` Increasing the number 10000 in the above commands causes the running time to increase quadratically.
Patches This vulnerability have been patched in 0.29.0.gfm.10.
Note on cmark and cmark-gfm XXX: TBD cmark-gfm is a fork of cmark that adds the GitHub Flavored Markdown extensions. The two codebases have diverged over time, but share a common core. These bugs affect both cmark and cmark-gfm.
Credit We would like to thank @gravypod for reporting this vulnerability.
References https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_complexity
For more information If you have any questions or comments about this advisory: * Open an issue in github/cmark-gfm Affected products include: Github Cmark-Gfm. Version information: version 0.29.0..
RemediationAI
A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Implement rate limiting, set resource quotas, validate input sizes, use timeouts.
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Same weakness CWE-400 – Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
View allSame technique Denial Of Service
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External POC / Exploit Code
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