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Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2022-21681

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

  • Published2022-01-14
  • WeaknessCWE-1333 · CWE-400

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

Marked is a markdown parser and compiler. Prior to version 4.0.10, the regular expression `inline.reflinkSearch` may cause catastrophic backtracking against some strings and lead to a denial of service (DoS). Anyone who runs untrusted markdown through a vulnerable version of marked and does not use a worker with a time limit may be affected. This issue is patched in version 4.0.10. As a workaround, avoid running untrusted markdown through marked or run marked on a worker thread and set a reasonable time limit to prevent draining resources.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2022-01-1417:15CVE publishedNVD

Versions per branch

NVD · OSV
Fedoraproject fedora
BranchAffectedFixed in
36.x= 36no fix published
Marked project marked
BranchAffectedFixed in
4.0< 4.0.104.0.10

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • @rootio/markedRoot:npmall versions · fixed in 4.0.9-root.io.1
  • @rootio/markedRoot:npmall versions · fixed in 0.3.19-root.io.1
  • @rootio/markedRoot:npmall versions · fixed in 0.3.19-root.io.2
  • arangodb-3.11Chainguardall versions · no fixed version listed
  • arangodb-3.12Chainguardall versions · fixed in 3.12.9.4-r14
  • markedTuxCare:npmfrom 0.7.0-tuxcare.0 · fixed in 0.7.0-tuxcare.1
  • markedTuxCare:npmfrom 4.0.7-tuxcare.0 · fixed in 4.0.7-tuxcare.1
  • markedTuxCare:npmfrom 4.0.9-tuxcare.0 · fixed in 4.0.9-tuxcare.1

21 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2022-21681 Red Hat Product Security3 products fixed · 24 known affected

    marked: regular expression inline.reflinkSearch may lead Denial of Service

    servicemesh-grafana as a component of OpenShift Service Mesh 2.0 · servicemesh-grafana-prometheus as a component of OpenShift Service Mesh 2.0 · servicemesh-grafana.src as a component of OpenShift Service Mesh 2.0 · +21 more

  • RHSA-2023:3642 Red Hat Product Security3 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Ceph Storage 6.1 Container security and bug fix update

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2023:3642 · 3 productsFor details on how to apply this update, see Upgrade a Red Hat Ceph Storage cluster using cephadm in the Red Hat Storage Ceph Upgrade Guide.(https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_ceph_storage)
  2. No fix available, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2022-21681 · 5 productsAffected
  3. No fix planned, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2022-21681 · 3 productsOut of support scope
  4. No fix planned, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2022-21681 · 16 productsWill not fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof of concept
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

  • CISA-ADPSSVC decisionpoc2025-04-22
  • CNACVSS 3.17.5known since 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 3.17.5read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 2.05read 2026-10-23
  • CNAweakness (CWE)CWE-1333, CWE-400known since 2026-10-23
  • NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-1333read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score2.9 %2026-11-08
  • OSVaffected packages—
  • GitHub AdvisoriesadvisoryHIGH2022-01-14

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published
2022-01-14
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-5v2h-r2cx-5xgj

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-21681?

Marked is a markdown parser and compiler. Prior to version 4.0.10, the regular expression `inline.reflinkSearch` may cause catastrophic backtracking against some strings and lead to a denial of service (DoS). Anyone who runs untrusted markdown through a vulnerable version of marked and does not use a worker with a time limit may be affected. This issue is patched in version 4.0.10. As a workaround, avoid running untrusted markdown through marked or run marked on a worker thread and set a reasonable time limit to prevent draining resources.

Is CVE-2022-21681 actively exploited?

A proof-of-concept exploit exists for CVE-2022-21681, but active exploitation has not been confirmed at this time.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2022-21681?

CVE-2022-21681 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

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Sources for this record