7.5highHigh
CVE-2026-49851
Mistune is a Python Markdown parser with renderers and plugins. Prior to 3.3.0, Mistune is vulnerable to a CPU exhaustion DoS due to superlinear (approximately O(n²)) behavior in parse_link_text. When parsing Markdown containing many consecutive [ characters, parse_link_text repeatedly scans the input using a regex search inside a loop. Each iteration re-scans a large portion of the remaining string, resulting in quadratic-time behavior. An attacker-controlled Markdown input can therefore trigger excessive CPU usage with a very small payload. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.3.0.
What the metrics mean
- It is reachable over a network, without needing local access.
- For an attacker who can reach it, no special conditions are needed to exploit it.
- To exploit it, no account is needed.
- Beyond that, no action by a user is required.
Scoring
- CVSS
- 7.5 (v3.1)
- Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H- CVSS v4
- 8.7
- Weakness
- CWE-400
- Assigned by
- security-advisories@github.com
Dates
- Published
- 2026-06-24
- Last modified
- 2026-08-28
- Sources
- NVD
References
- https://github.com/lepture/mistune/security/advisories/GHSA-qcq2-496w-v96p
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:60520
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-49851
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2492304
- https://github.com/lepture/mistune/security/advisories/GHSA-qcq2-496w-v96p
- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-49851.json