CVE-2018-25110: Marked Denial of Service Vulnerability

MODERATE
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-p9wx-2529-fp83
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CWE-1333
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2018-25110 is a MODERATE denial of service vulnerability (CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity) affecting Marked libraries in the npm ecosystem. The issue involves marked allows regular expression denial of service (redos) attacks. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 0.3.17.

CVE-2018-25110 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2018-25110
GHSA Identifier GHSA-p9wx-2529-fp83
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score N/A
CWE Classification CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity
Affected Product Marked
Package Ecosystem npm
Published Date
Last Updated

How to Fix CVE-2018-25110

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Marked dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

marked fixed: 0.3.17 
npm install marked@0.3.17
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

npm ls marked

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Node.js application is affected by CVE-2018-25110, inspect your project dependencies using npm:

npm ls marked

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Marked in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 0.3.17), your application is affected.

Note: The npm ls marked command inspects dependencies declared in your package.json and lockfile; it does not perform automated runtime dynamic scanning.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity, where the product uses a regular expression with a worst-case computational complexity that is inefficient and possibly exponential. In Marked, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

Marked prior to version 0.3.17 is vulnerable to a Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) attack due to catastrophic backtracking in several regular expressions used for parsing HTML tags and markdown links. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by providing specially crafted markdown input, such as deeply nested or repetitively structured brackets or tag attributes, which cause the parser to hang and lead to a Denial of Service.

CVE-2018-25110 Affected Marked Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
0.3.17
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
marked
npm/marked
npm
< 0.3.17
0.3.17

References

NVD — CVE-2018-25110 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-25110
Marked Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/markedjs/marked/issues/1070
Marked Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/markedjs/marked/pull/1083
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/markedjs/marked/commit/20bfc106013ed45713a21672ad4a34df94dcd485
Marked Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/Checkmarx/Vulnerabilities-Proofs-of-Concept/tree/main/2018/CVE-2018-25110
Marked Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/markedjs/marked

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2018-25110?
CVE-2018-25110 is a security vulnerability in Marked involving Marked allows Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) attacks under CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity.
Which Marked versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 0.3.17 across affected packages: marked.
What version fixes CVE-2018-25110?
Upgrading to 0.3.17 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is marked affected?
Yes, marked is affected in releases prior to 0.3.17. Upgrade your dependency to 0.3.17 or later.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2018-25110?
CVE-2018-25110 is classified under CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity (The product uses a regular expression with a worst-case computational complexity that is inefficient and possibly exponential.).
How can I check npm dependencies for CVE-2018-25110?
Run the dependency tree command: 'npm ls marked'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-p9wx-2529-fp83",
  "modified" : "2025-05-27T15:03:47Z",
  "published" : "2025-05-23T15:31:16Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2018-25110" ],
  "summary" : "Marked allows Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) attacks",
  "details" : "Marked prior to version 0.3.17 is vulnerable to a Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) attack due to catastrophic backtracking in several regular expressions used for parsing HTML tags and markdown links. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by providing specially crafted markdown input, such as deeply nested or repetitively structured brackets or tag attributes, which cause the parser to hang and lead to a Denial of Service.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "marked"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "0.3.17"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-25110"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/markedjs/marked/issues/1070"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/markedjs/marked/pull/1083"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/markedjs/marked/commit/20bfc106013ed45713a21672ad4a34df94dcd485"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/Checkmarx/Vulnerabilities-Proofs-of-Concept/tree/main/2018/CVE-2018-25110"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/markedjs/marked"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-1333" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2025-05-27T15:03:47Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2025-05-23T15:15:20Z"
  }
}