CVE-2022-21680 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in marked. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for marked — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Cubic catastrophic backtracking (ReDoS) in marked
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-2022-21680 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 377,636 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.
markednpmDescription
Impact
What kind of vulnerability is it?
Denial of service.
The regular expression block.def may cause catastrophic backtracking against some strings.
PoC is the following.
import * as marked from "marked";
marked.parse(`[x]:${' '.repeat(1500)}x ${' '.repeat(1500)} x`);
Who is impacted?
Anyone who runs untrusted markdown through marked and does not use a worker with a time limit.
Patches
Has the problem been patched?
Yes
What versions should users upgrade to?
4.0.10
Workarounds
Is there a way for users to fix or remediate the vulnerability without upgrading?
Do not run untrusted markdown through marked or run marked on a worker thread and set a reasonable time limit to prevent draining resources.
References
Are there any links users can visit to find out more?
- https://marked.js.org/using_advanced#workers
- https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Regular_expression_Denial_of_Service_-_ReDoS
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Open an issue in marked
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | marked | all versions | 4.0.10npm install marked@4.0.10 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for marked, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update marked to 4.0.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-21680 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-2022-21680 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-21680. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Ceph Storage 6.1 | rhceph/rhceph-6-dashboard-rhel9:6-75 | RHSA-2023:3642 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-21680 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-21680 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.