BlackTreeIndependent security intelligence

Full vulnerability report · 2026

CVE-2026-48988High confidence

markdown-it: Quadratic complexity DoS in smartquotes rule via replaceAt string operations

markdown-it · markdown-it

5.3MediumCVSS 3.1

Recommended action

Within 7 days

Medium technical severity with public exploit material referenced by a structured source; prioritise exposed affected systems while verifying vendor guidance.

Patch available

Distribution package intelligence

Ubuntu vendor package status

Canonical’s release and source-package findings are shown separately from local repository availability.

1 package state

Repository candidate not checked

A published vendor fix does not prove that a matching update is enabled and installable on a particular asset. Confirm the local package candidate before scheduling remediation.

Ubuntu release	Source package	Vendor state	Fixed version	Evidence
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSnoble · standard archive	`node-markdown-it`	Under evaluationCanonical reports that the package might be affected and still needs evaluation or fixing.	`Not published in this feed`	Canonical record ↗Source updated 9 Sept 2026

Direct vendor intelligence

Authoritative vendor CSAF and VEX advisories

Structured product status and remediation from the issuing vendor. Product-state explanations are always visible; large lists can be searched or downloaded.

1 current

CVE-2026-48988 · CSAF 2.0 · revision 3 · finalRed Hat Product Securitymarkdown-it: markdown-it: Denial of Service via quadratic processing of smartquotes with typographer enabled

15 known affected

The vendor explicitly identifies these products as affected by this CVE.

rh-podman-desktop.git as a component of Red Hat Build of Podman Desktop
thrift as a component of Red Hat Ceph Storage 9
thrift.src as a component of Red Hat Ceph Storage 9
rhdh/red-hat-developer-hub-backstage-plugin-lightspeed-backend as a component of Red Hat Developer Hub
rhdh/red-hat-developer-hub-backstage-plugin-orchestrator-backend as a component of Red Hat Developer Hub
rhdh/red-hat-developer-hub-backstage-plugin-orchestrator-backend-module-loki as a component of Red Hat Developer Hub
rhdh/red-hat-developer-hub-backstage-plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-orchestrator as a component of Red Hat Developer Hub
rhdh/rhdh-hub-rhel9 as a component of Red Hat Developer Hub
rhoai/odh-feature-server-rhel9 as a component of Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI)
rhoai/odh-workbench-codeserver-datascience-cpu-py312-rhel9 as a component of Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI)
devspaces/code-rhel9 as a component of Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces
devspaces/openvsx-rhel9 as a component of Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces

Summary: A flaw was found in markdown-it, a Markdown parser. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) when the `typographer` option is enabled. This occurs due to inefficient processing of smartquotes, leading to excessive CPU consumption when parsing specially crafted, quote-heavy markdown input. This can degrade or disrupt service availability for affected applications.
Remediation: Fix deferred

Official European source

ENISA European Vulnerability Database

Official EUVD identifiers, advisory evidence and known-exploited context. Missing fields are not treated as evidence of low risk.

1 current

ENISA EUVD identifier

EUVD-2026-37799

No EUVD known-exploited evidence

ENISA has published the identifier mapping but no EUVD description has been stored yet.

EUVD state: Present in the current official mapping
Known exploitation: Not present in the current ENISA EUVD known-exploited dataset. This is not proof of no exploitation.
ENISA score: Not supplied in the stored EUVD record
Advisory evidence: No linked advisory details stored yet

Recommended actionWithin 7 days

Medium technical severity with public exploit material referenced by a structured source; prioritise exposed affected systems while verifying vendor guidance.

Patch available

What, why and how

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.

What

Why

The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.

How

An attacker operating through a network path may attempt exploitation without authentication or user interaction. If successful, the issue may cause the confidentiality, integrity or availability impact described by the vendor.

What

Why

The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.

How

Exploit reality and attack path

CVSS severity, EPSS forecast probability, public exploit material and CISA-confirmed exploitation are separate signals.

Observed exploitation

Confirmed exploitation and public exploit material are separate signals. Attacks can occur without public proof-of-concept or exploit code.

No confirmed evidence

No CISA KEV match was present at the last successful refresh. This means no confirmation from that source, not proof of no exploitation.

Public PoC / exploit material

Confirmed exploitation and public exploit material are separate signals. Attacks can occur without public proof-of-concept or exploit code.

Reference recorded

A structured CVE source labels at least one public reference as exploit material. BlackTree has not independently validated that it is safe, reliable or weaponised.

Likely attack path: a network path → Uncontrolled Resource Consumption → cause the confidentiality, integrity or availability impact described by the vendor
Attack surface: Network
Privileges required: None: unauthenticated exploitation is possible
User interaction: None
Attack complexity: Low: no specialised conditions are recorded
Security boundary: Unchanged: impact remains within the vulnerable component's security authority
Weakness ? CWE means Common Weakness Enumeration: a standard category for the underlying weakness.: CWE-400 ↗
CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
CVSS vector ? CVSS means Common Vulnerability Scoring System. The vector records the metric values used to calculate technical severity.: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Common Vulnerability Scoring System 3.1: the compact vector below is decoded into plain language.
AVNetworkAttack vector: The vulnerable component can be reached over a network.ACLowAttack complexity: No specialised conditions are required beyond attacker-controlled input.PRNonePrivileges required: The attacker does not need an account or existing privileges.UINoneUser interaction: No action by another user is required.SUnchangedScope: The security impact remains within the vulnerable component's authority.CNoneConfidentiality impact: No direct loss is represented by this metric.INoneIntegrity impact: No direct loss is represented by this metric.ALowAvailability impact: A successful attack can cause a limited loss.
Post-exploitation / living off the land: No specific living-off-the-land technique is confirmed in the structured sources. Monitor normal administration tools for activity inconsistent with the affected service's baseline.

NetworkUnauthenticatedCWE-400Public exploit reference

Official authority intelligence

Only matched European and national findings are included. Language selectors and unavailable sources are omitted.

ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2026-37799Official EUVD mapping

0 linked advisory records.

Official EUVD record

CERT-FR · French · CERTFR-2026-AVI-1094Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits IBM

ord?id=CVE-2026-47063 Référence CVE CVE-2026-47265 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-47265 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48710 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48710 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48713 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48713 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48775 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48775 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48779 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48779 Référence CVE CVE-2026-4878 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-4878 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48801 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48801 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48864 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48864 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48988 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48988 Référence CVE CVE-2026-49157 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-49157 Référence CVE CVE-2026-49270 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-49270 Référence CVE CVE-2026-49432 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-49432 Référence CVE CVE-2026-49434 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-49434 Référence CVE CVE-2026-49458 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-49458 Référence CVE CVE-2026-49459 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-49459 Référence CVE CVE-2026-49476 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-49476 Référence CVE CVE-2026-49477 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=

Official advisory

CERT-FR · French · CERTFR-2026-AVI-0933Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits IBM

d?id=CVE-2026-47691 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48155 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48155 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48156 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48156 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48522 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48522 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48523 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48523 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48524 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48524 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48525 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48525 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48710 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48710 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48735 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48735 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48988 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48988 Référence CVE CVE-2026-48990 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48990 Référence CVE CVE-2026-50010 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-50010 Référence CVE CVE-2026-50170 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-50170 Référence CVE CVE-2026-50171 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-50171 Référence CVE CVE-2026-50557 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-50557 Référence CVE CVE-2026-52725 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-52725 Référence CVE CVE-2026-53537 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-53537 Référence CVE CVE-2026-53538 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=

Official advisory

Patch and workaround

Operational remediation based on structured source evidence.

Status ? Patch availability is based on structured fixed-version fields and authoritative update references. If no fix is verified, check the vendor advisory before making a change.: Patch available
Affected: rh-podman-desktop.git as a component of Red Hat Build of Podman Desktop; thrift as a component of Red Hat Ceph Storage 9; thrift.src as a component of Red Hat Ceph Storage 9; rhdh/red-hat-developer-hub-backstage-plugin-lightspeed-backend as a component of Red Hat Developer Hub; rhdh/red-hat-developer-hub-backstage-plugin-orchestrator-backend as a component of Red Hat Developer Hub; rhdh/red-hat-developer-hub-backstage-plugin-orchestrator-backend-module-loki as a component of Red Hat Developer Hub; rhdh/red-hat-developer-hub-backstage-plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-orchestrator as a component of Red Hat Developer Hub; rhdh/rhdh-hub-rhel9 as a component of Red Hat Developer Hub; rhoai/odh-feature-server-rhel9 as a component of Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI); rhoai/odh-workbench-codeserver-datascience-cpu-py312-rhel9 as a component of Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI); devspaces/code-rhel9 as a component of Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces; devspaces/openvsx-rhel9 as a component of Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces; devspaces/pluginregistry-rhel9 as a component of Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces; ansible-automation-platform/automation-portal as a component of Self-service automation portal 2; ansible-automation-platform/bootc-automation-portal-rhel9 as a component of Self-service automation portal 2
Fixed: 14.2.0.
Action: Review the linked authoritative reference and apply the recorded fixed release appropriate to the affected product branch.
Workaround: A mitigation or workaround reference is available from the source linked below; validate it against the affected product and version.

Evidence and provenance

Published 17 Jun 2026 · Last source change 18 Jun 2026, 19:41 UTC · CWE-400 · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

CVE recordCVE.org · 5.2

CVSS sourceCNA

EPSS source

The date BlackTree first stored a score for this CVE from the daily FIRST EPSS feed.

FIRST · tracked since 2026-08-14

European sourceENISA EUVD · EUVD-2026-37799

Product sourceVendor CSAF · Red Hat Product Security

Remediation sourceVendor CSAF · Red Hat Product Security

CWE sourceCNA

NVD statusNVD enriched

Core structured fields are present and their contributing authorities are shown above.

Material change intelligence

What changed after publication

View recent updates →

No material field changes have been recorded since change tracking began. Routine source refreshes and cosmetic edits are intentionally excluded.

2026-06-17CVE published

2026-06-18Fixed release or patch reference recorded

ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2026-37799↗Vendor CSAF · Red Hat Product Security↗CISA Vulnrichment SSVC evidence↗Public exploit reference↗Patch or update reference↗Official CVE record (CNA and ADP data)↗NVD record↗

Technical terms and abbreviations used in this report

CVE: Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures: the public identifier for one disclosed vulnerability.
CVSS: Common Vulnerability Scoring System: a technical severity framework; it is not patching priority by itself.
EPSS: Exploit Prediction Scoring System: FIRST's estimate of the probability that exploitation activity will be observed in the next 30 days; it is a forecast, not confirmation.
CWE: Common Weakness Enumeration: the standard category describing the underlying software or hardware weakness.
CNA: CVE Numbering Authority: an organisation authorised to assign and publish CVE records.
CISA ADP: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Authorized Data Publisher: structured enrichment added to a CVE record.
NVD: National Vulnerability Database: NIST's enrichment service for CVE records.
CERT / CSIRT: A computer security incident response team that publishes warnings or coordinates incident response.
PoC: Proof of concept: public material that demonstrates or helps reproduce exploitation.
CSAF: Common Security Advisory Framework: a machine-readable format for security advisories.
LoTL: Living off the land: abuse of legitimate tools or system functions during an attack.