GHSA-mh25-x5hq-wrqp
### Impact `UniqueSlugNormalizer::normalize()` makes each slug document-unique by searching for an unused numeric suffix, but **restarts that search from `1` on every collision**. The k-th heading that collapses to the same base slug performs k−1 array lookups, so K colliding slugs cost Σ(k−1) = **O(K²)**. An attacker can force every heading onto a single base slug trivially — many empty ATX headings, identical heading text, or punctuation-only headings that normalize to the empty string. The path is reached whenever the shared slug normalizer runs over attacker-controlled text. That happens when `HeadingPermalinkExtension` is registered (its `HeadingPermalinkProcessor` normalizes every heading), independently through `FootnoteExtension` (its `AnonymousFootnoteRefParser` normalizes every `^[label]` reference), and on any `TableOfContentsExtension` site (which requires `HeadingPermalinkExtension` to be co-registered). The default `slug_normalizer/unique` setting (`UniqueSlugNormalizerInterface::PER_DOCUMENT`) accumulates collisions across the whole document. No authentication is required — a small document body turns into seconds of CPU and denies service. Availability impact only. **`UniqueSlugNormalizer` was introduced in 2.0.0 (first shipped in 2.0.0-beta1, May 2021); the 1.x heading-permalink slug generator performed no de-duplication and is not affected. All 2.x releases (including 2.8.x) are affected.** ### Workarounds Integrators who cannot upgrade immediately can: - **Set `slug_normalizer/unique` to `false` / `UniqueSlugNormalizerInterface::DISABLED`**, which stops the de-duplication scan entirely — at the cost of losing id uniqueness (colliding headings then share an anchor). - **Disable `HeadingPermalinkExtension`** (and `TableOfContentsExtension`, which depends on it), and `FootnoteExtension` where anonymous footnotes reach the same normalizer, for untrusted Markdown. - **Cap the accepted document size / heading count upstream** so K cannot reach the
Properties
- ghsa_id
- GHSA-mh25-x5hq-wrqp
- summary
- league/commonmark: Denial of service via colliding heading slugs
- severity
- high
- cvss_score
- 7.5
- cve_id
- GHSA-mh25-x5hq-wrqp
- 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
- 2026-08-06T20:41:45Z
- source_url
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-mh25-x5hq-wrqp
- ghsa_updated
- 2026-08-06T20:41:46Z
Related Entities (4)
HAS_WEAKNESS (1)
REPORTED_BY (1)
VULNERABLE_TO (1)
AFFECTS (1)
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