CVE-2026-86435 (CVSS 7.5)

Description

commonmark versions from 1.5.0 before 2.8.4 contain a denial of service vulnerability in the Footnote extension that fails to deduplicate footnote definitions. Attackers can craft documents with duplicate footnote definitions and references to create quadratic output expansion, consuming excessive memory and CPU to exhaust server resources.

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CVSS v3.1 Score

7.5

HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS — Exploit Prediction

0.0028

Probability of exploitation

0.20%

Percentile rank

EPSS estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A higher score means more likely to be exploited.

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-407 CWE-407

References

Other References

https://github.com/thephpleague/commonmark/security/advisories/GHSA-jfm3-95jq-q3rf https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/commonmark-1.5.0-before-2.8.4-denial-of-service-via-footnote

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-86435? +

commonmark versions from 1.5.0 before 2.8.4 contain a denial of service vulnerability in the Footnote extension that fails to deduplicate footnote definitions. Attackers can craft documents with duplicate footnote definitions and references to create quadratic output expansion, consuming excessive memory and CPU to exhaust server resources. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH).

How severe is CVE-2026-86435? +

CVE-2026-86435 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.5 out of 10, rated HIGH. This is a high-severity vulnerability that should be prioritized for patching. The EPSS score is 0.0028, placing it in the 0th percentile for exploitation probability.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2026-86435? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

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