Description
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 products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| markdown-it | markdown-it | < 14.2.0 | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | node-markdown-it | 22.2.3+dfsg+~12.2.3-5 | — |
| Debian 13 | node-markdown-it | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 12 | node-markdown-it | No fix yet | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | node-markdown-it | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | node-markdown-it | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 25.10 | node-markdown-it | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | node-markdown-it | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | node-markdown-it | No fix yet | — |
Wolfi
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wolfi rolling | renovate | 43.249.5-r1 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | vitess-24 | 24.0.1-r4 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | vitess-24-compat | 24.0.3-r7 | — |
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| npm | markdown-it | < 14.2.0 | 14.2.0 | GHSA-6v5v-wf23-fmfq |