Description
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](https://github.com/github/cmark-gfm) is a fork of [cmark](https://github.com/commonmark/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](https://github.com/github/cmark-gfm)
Published: 2023-03-31
Score: 5.3 Medium
EPSS: < 1% Very Low
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

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Remediation

No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.

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Tracking

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Advisories
Source ID Title
EUVD EUVD EUVD-2023-30291 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](https://github.com/github/cmark-gfm) is a fork of [cmark](https://github.com/commonmark/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](https://github.com/github/cmark-gfm)
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7319-1 cmark-gfm vulnerabilities
History

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 18:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'poc', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Subscriptions

Github Cmark-gfm
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published:

Updated: 2025-02-11T17:20:37.921Z

Reserved: 2023-02-23T23:22:58.575Z

Link: CVE-2023-26485

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2024-08-02T11:53:52.747Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Modified

Published: 2023-03-31T23:15:07.250

Modified: 2024-11-21T07:51:36.963

Link: CVE-2023-26485

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Moderate

Publid Date: 2023-04-01T00:00:00Z

Links: CVE-2023-26485 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses