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CVE-2026-48988
Published:June 17, 2026
Updated:June 18, 2026
markdown-it is a Markdown parser. Versions 14.1.1 and below contain a denial-of-service vulnerability when typographer: true is enabled, due to quadratic (O(n^2)) processing in the smartquotes rule. The issue stems from repeatedly modifying strings with replaceAt(), which performs O(n) slicing and concatenation per quote character. This can cause excessive CPU consumption when parsing quote-heavy, user-supplied markdown and may let attackers degrade or disrupt service availability. Although typographer is disabled by default, many production apps enable it for smart typography, making the issue relevant. This issue has been fixed in version 14.2.0.
Affected Packages
markdown-it (CDN_JS):
Affected version(s) >=2.0.0 <14.2.0
Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 14.2.0
https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=2.0.0 <14.2.0
Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 14.2.0
markdown-it (NPM):
Affected version(s) >=2.0.0 <14.2.0
Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 14.2.0
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CVSS v4
Base Score:
6.9
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
CVSS v3
Base Score:
5.3
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
LOW
Weakness Type (CWE)
Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
EPSS
Base Score:
0.42