Vulnerability in Thephpleague Commonmark
CVE-2026-86434
league/commonmark versions >= 2.0.0 and < 2.8.4 (patched in 2.9.0) contain a denial of service vulnerability in UniqueSlugNormalizer::normalize(), which restarts its numeric-suffix search from 1 on every slug collision, resulting in O(K^2) time complexity for K headings that collapse to the same base slug. The vulnerable path is reached when HeadingPermalinkExtension, FootnoteExtension, or TableOfContentsExtension is registered. An unauthenticated attacker can force many headings onto a single base slug (e.g., via empty ATX headings, identical heading text, or punctuation-only headings) in a small Markdown document, consuming excessive CPU and denying service.
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.005 (42.5th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 43rd percentile — 42.5% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.003 · newest: 0.005 · change: +0.002
Affected products
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- github.com/thephpleague/commonmark/security/advisories/GHSA-mh25-x5hq-wrqp (vendor-advisory)
- www.vulncheck.com/advisories/commonmark-2.0.0-through-2.8.3-denial-of-service-v… (third-party-advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-86434?
- CVE-2026-86434 is a high-severity vulnerability in Thephpleague Commonmark, classified under Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2026-09-07.
- How severe is CVE-2026-86434?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.