highCVSS 7.5Vulnerability

GHSA-g2gp-3wwq-f4ph

### Impact With the Attributes extension enabled, `AttributesListener::findTargetAndDirection()` resolves each attribute node's target by walking outward through its siblings. For a run of N adjacent inline attribute blocks placed at the start of a block (with nothing to their left), each node scans the **entire** sibling list to the far-right end before giving up and falling back to the parent. Each resolution is therefore Θ(N) and the whole run is **Θ(N²)**. Reaching the path requires `AttributesExtension` (opt-in, but first-party: `League\CommonMark\Extension\Attributes\AttributesExtension`). No other configuration matters — the quadratic walk runs unconditionally during parsing and is **not** gated by the `attributes/allow` allow-list, the `on*` hardening added in 2.7.0, or `allow_unsafe_links`. An unauthenticated attacker can submit a **~32 KB** input (`{#a}` repeated 8,000 times) that takes **over 5 seconds** to convert, with time growing quadratically in input length — a cheap denial of service. Availability impact only. **The Attributes extension was introduced in 1.5.0 (May 2020) with this outward-walk resolver present from the first commit, so all releases from 1.5.0 onward (including every 2.x) are affected.** ### Workarounds There is no library-level configuration that gates the quadratic walk. Integrators who cannot upgrade can only reduce exposure indirectly: - **Disable the Attributes extension** for untrusted input, or - **Impose a strict maximum input length before conversion** — noting that because the cost is quadratic, even a modest cap must be small to meaningfully bound worst-case CPU. Upgrading to a release containing the fix is recommended.

Properties

ghsa_id
GHSA-g2gp-3wwq-f4ph
summary
league/commonmark: Denial of service via adjacent inline attribute blocks
severity
high
cvss_score
7.5
cve_id
GHSA-g2gp-3wwq-f4ph
cvss_vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
is_ghsa_only
true
ghsa_published
2026-08-06T20:39:52Z
source_url
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-g2gp-3wwq-f4ph
ghsa_updated
2026-08-06T20:39:53Z

Related Entities (4)

HAS_WEAKNESS (1)

[Weakness]Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity

REPORTED_BY (1)

[Source]GitHub Advisory Database

VULNERABLE_TO (1)

[Software]composer/league/commonmark

AFFECTS (1)

[Software]composer/league/commonmark

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