CVE-2015-10005 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-1333 vulnerability in markdown-it. A fix is available for markdown-it — see the affected versions and patch details below.
markdown-it vulnerable to Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2015-10005.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2015-10005 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
markdown-itnpmDescription
A vulnerability was found in markdown-it up to 2.x. It has been classified as problematic. Affected is an unknown function of the file lib/common/html_re.js. The manipulation leads to inefficient regular expression complexity. Upgrading to version 3.0.0 is able to address this issue. The name of the patch is 89c8620157d6e38f9872811620d25138fc9d1b0d. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component. The identifier of this vulnerability is VDB-216852.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | markdown-it | all versions | 3.0.0npm install markdown-it@3.0.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for markdown-it, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update markdown-it to 3.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2015-10005 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2015-10005 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2015-10005. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2015-10005 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2015-10005 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.