NVD / CVE Program· CNA GitHub_M

CVE-2023-22483: cmark-gfm Quadratic complexity bugs may lead to a denial of service

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 30/100)

The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 1% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 65.3% of all records.
Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
Fixed version: github cmark-gfm 0.29.0.gfm.7.
Severity is disputed: the assigning authority (CNA) scores it 3.5, NVD 7.5.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to github cmark-gfm 0.29.0.gfm.7 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

cmark-gfm is GitHub's fork of cmark, a CommonMark parsing and rendering library and program in C. Versions prior to 0.29.0.gfm.7 are subject to several polynomial time complexity issues in cmark-gfm that may lead to unbounded resource exhaustion and subsequent denial of service. Various commands, when piped to cmark-gfm with large values, cause the running time to increase quadratically. These vulnerabilities have been patched in version 0.29.0.gfm.7.

HighCVSS 7.5 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available

Published: Jan 23, 2023
Updated: Jun 17, 2026
EPSS: 1.0% · 65th percentile
CWE: CWE-400

Report tools

JSON

Action score

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS: 30 / 40 · 7.5 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 0 / 30 · 1.0%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation: proof of concept
Automatable: no
Technical impact: partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD: 7.5
CNA · GitHub_M: 3.5; 4.0 point gap

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
No public exploit code on record
A fix has been released

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
github	cmark-gfm	cpe:2.3:a:github:cmark-gfm

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

github cmark-gfmbefore 0.29.0.gfm.7

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (GitHub_M). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

github cmark-gfm
- < 0.29.0.gfm.7affected

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

Ecosystem	Package	Affected range	Fix
Debian:12	cmark-gfm	from 0	—
Debian:12	python-cmarkgfm	from 0	—
Debian:12	r-cran-commonmark	from 0	—
Debian:12	ruby-commonmarker	from 0	—
Debian:13	cmark-gfm	before 0.29.0.gfm.13-1	0.29.0.gfm.13-1
Debian:13	python-cmarkgfm	before 2024.11.20-1	2024.11.20-1
Debian:13	r-cran-commonmark	before 1.9.0-1	1.9.0-1
Debian:13	ruby-commonmarker	before 0.23.10-1	0.23.10-1

Same product

github: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2022-24724Integer overflow in table parsing extension leads to heap memory corruption
40Plan
CVE-2024-22051CommonMarker Integer Overflow Vulnerability
39Monitor
CVE-2023-37463Quadratic complexity bugs may lead to a denial of service
30Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2022-39209Sep 15, 2022 · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in cmark-gfm
27Monitor
Later →CVE-2023-22484Jan 23, 2023 · Inefficient Quadratic complexity bug in handle_pointy_brace may lead to a denial of service
30Monitor
Later →CVE-2023-22485Jan 23, 2023 · cmark-gfm out-of-bounds read in validate_protocol
21Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / package	Fixed version	Source
github cmark-gfm	0.29.0.gfm.7 · description	Vendor (CNA)
debian:cmark-gfm	0.29.0.gfm.13-1 · Debian:13	Package registry (OSV)
debian:python-cmarkgfm	2024.11.20-1 · Debian:13	Package registry (OSV)
debian:r-cran-commonmark	1.9.0-1 · Debian:13	Package registry (OSV)
debian:ruby-commonmarker	0.23.10-1 · Debian:13	Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

The product’s vendor appears in a public program. Matched by name; verify the scope text in the program.

Technical details

Attack conditions

Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
No account or password is required.
No user action is required.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality: none
Integrity: none
Availability: high · the service can be disrupted

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality impact: None
Integrity impact: None
Availability impact: High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-400 · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

nvd-primary

Root cause

Code that parses nested structures sets no depth or size limit. A small input can turn into a disproportionate processing load.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-400 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

1function expand(node) {
2  return node.children.map(expand);
3}

Fixed

1const MAX_DEPTH = 32;
2function expand(node, depth = 0) {
3  if (depth > MAX_DEPTH) throw new Error("too deep");
4  return node.children.map((c) => expand(c, depth + 1));
5}

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Attack patterns (CAPEC)

ATT&CK techniques

Endpoint Denial of ServiceT1499

Change log

Fix✗ → ✓Sep 28, 2026, 10:48 PM UTC

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