CVE-2026-111759
markdown-it: Quadratic complexity in smartquotes with unmatched closing quotes
Reported by github_m · Published October 19, 2026
markdown-it is a Markdown parser. Prior to 14.3.2 and 15.0.2, when typographer: true is enabled, specially crafted Markdown can cause quadratic processing time in the smartquotes rule, potentially leading to denial of service in applications processing untrusted input. Many opening double quotes followed by unmatched closing single quotes cause repeated scans of the entire opener stack. The same issue occurs with the quote types reversed. The default configuration (typographer: false) is not affected, but this option is enabled with high probability. This issue is fixed in versions 14.3.2 and 15.0.2.
Fixed versions
Upgrade to a fixed version or later. Language registries are listed first, then Linux distributions, then vendor products.
| Package | Ecosystem | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| vitess-24 | Chainguard | 24.0.5-r2 |
Risk scores
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| markdown-it | markdown-it | >= 15.0.0, < 15.0.2, < 14.3.2 |
| chainguard | vitess-24 | 0 |
| markdown-it | markdown-it | 0, 15.0.0 |
| markdown-it | markdown-it | |
| wolfi | renovate | 0 |
| wolfi | vitess-24 | 0 |
| chainguard | gitlab-rails-ce-19.5 | 0 |
| chainguard | kibana-9.2 | 0 |
| chainguard | vitess-22 | 0 |
| chainguard | renovate | 0 |
| chainguard | gitlab-rails-ce-19.3 | 0 |
| chainguard | commercial-gitlab-rails-ee-fips-19.1 | 0 |
| npm | markdown-it | 15.0.0, 0 |
Timeline
- Oct 19, 2026 CVE Published
- Oct 19, 2026 CVE Updated
- Oct 20, 2026 EPSS Score (5 in total, the first dated here)
- Oct 31, 2026 Security Advisory
Query this with the API
The same record, from the CLI:
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References
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/security/advisories/GHSA-r7fv-28h4-cvq7 x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/commit/1b379c1b6d0522421bd1a51b77337c79af2c8670 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/commit/cf27366035edf9196667110c47d9d67b030a4152 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/commit/daf5a3c32303e5d9de01b12eeb725fb5990b8162 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/releases/tag/14.3.2 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/releases/tag/15.0.2 x_refsource_MISC
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-111759 advisory
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-r7fv-28h4-cvq7 advisory