GHSA-xf5p-87ch-gxw2 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) vulnerability in marked. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-xf5p-87ch-gxw2 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Marked ReDoS due to email addresses being evaluated in quadratic time
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, a proxy for how much of the ecosystem is exposed.
markednpmDescription
Versions of marked from 0.3.14 until 0.6.2 are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service. Email addresses may be evaluated in quadratic time, allowing attackers to potentially crash the node process due to resource exhaustion.
Recommendation
Upgrade to version 0.6.2 or later.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | marked | ≥ 0.3.14&&< 0.6.2 | 0.6.2 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for marked. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update marked to 0.6.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-xf5p-87ch-gxw2 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 pinpoints whether GHSA-xf5p-87ch-gxw2 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-xf5p-87ch-gxw2. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-xf5p-87ch-gxw2 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-xf5p-87ch-gxw2 across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.