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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2026-59928 json

Mistune block_parser: quadratic-time parsing on long lists of repeated reference-link definitions

published 2026-07-08 4 mo ago modified 2026-10-25 14 d ago also GHSA-ffq3-xpv3-j92q , PYSEC-2026-2216 , EUVD-2026-42338

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.7%
EPSS 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 51%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Mistune is a Python Markdown parser with renderers and plugins. Prior to 3.3.0, a Markdown document containing many repeated or distinct reference-link definitions causes quadratic work in src/mistune/block_parser.py and the ref_links environment dictionary handling, allowing denial of service through CPU exhaustion. This issue is fixed in version 3.3.0.

Patch / fix

  • pypi mistune 3.3.0
  • mistune_project mistune 3.3.0
  • python-mistune SLES for SAP applications 16.0, SLES 16.0 3.1.3-160000.5.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:22655-1

  • python-mistune openSUSE Leap 16.0 3.1.3-160000.5.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21339-1

  • python-mistune Azure Linux 3.0 3.3.0-1

azure linux advisories AZL-92211

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-59928 updated cvss 6.5

mistune: Mistune: Denial of Service via crafted Markdown document with reference-link definitions

  • Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Applications 8 mta/mta-solution-server-rhel9 Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) rhoai/odh-th06-cpu-torch210-py312-rhel9, rhoai/odh-th06-cpu-torch291-py312-rhel9, rhoai/odh-th06-rocm64-torch291-py312-rhel9, rhoai/odh-th06-cuda130-torch210-py312-rhel9, rhoai/odh-th06-cuda130-torch291-py312-rhel9, rhoai/odh-pipeline-runtime-minimal-cpu-py312-rhel9, +16 more Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 python-mistune 0.8.3-15.2.el9ocp Red Hat Satellite 6 satellite/iop-advisor-engine-rhel9
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
4 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.65% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 51% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/lepture/mistune/security/advisories/GHSA-ffq3-xpv3-j92q referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
OSV 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
GitHub 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
pypi mistune
<3.3.0
3.3.0

Affected products

  • lepture mistune

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-407 Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity
  • CWE-1333 Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.