CVE-2022-21680 : What You Need to Know

A detailed analysis of the CVE-2022-21680 vulnerability in marked, a markdown parser and compiler.

Understanding CVE-2022-21680

This section explores the impact, technical details, and mitigation strategies related to the Cubic catastrophic backtracking vulnerability in marked.

What is CVE-2022-21680?

CVE-2022-21680 refers to a regular expression denial of service (ReDoS) vulnerability in marked, where the

block.def

regex could lead to resource exhaustion when processing certain strings.

The Impact of CVE-2022-21680

The vulnerability affects marked versions prior to 4.0.10, potentially enabling an attacker to perform a denial of service attack by exploiting the regex backtracking issue.

Technical Details of CVE-2022-21680

Explore the specifics of the vulnerability, the affected systems, and how it can be exploited.

Vulnerability Description

The flaw arises from the

block.def

regex in marked, allowing for catastrophic backtracking against specific input strings, resulting in resource consumption and service disruption.

Affected Systems and Versions

Users of marked versions lower than 4.0.10 are at risk of exploitation and resource exhaustion due to the ReDoS vulnerability.

Exploitation Mechanism

By submitting crafted input strings to marked, threat actors can trigger excessive processing time, potentially leading to a denial of service condition.

Mitigation and Prevention

Learn how to protect systems and mitigate the risk posed by CVE-2022-21680.

Immediate Steps to Take

To address the issue, users should update marked to version 4.0.10 or newer to patch the vulnerability and prevent ReDoS attacks.

Long-Term Security Practices

Implementing input validation mechanisms, running parsers in isolated environments with resource limits, and monitoring regex processing can enhance security posture.

Patching and Updates

Stay informed about security advisories, apply patches promptly, and regularly update software to eliminate known vulnerabilities.