6.9
MEDIUM CVSS 4.0
CVE-2026-53428
Unbounded memory allocation in highlight_lines range expansion in mdex
Description

Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value vulnerability in leandrocp mdex allows an unauthenticated attacker to cause a denial of service through unbounded memory allocation. comrak_nif::lumis_adapter::LumisAdapter::parse_highlight_lines in native/comrak_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs eagerly expands a user-controlled inclusive line range from a fenced code block's highlight_lines decorator into a Vec<usize>, pushing one element per integer in the range with no upper bound on the range size. An attacker who can supply Markdown that an application renders with MDEx.to_html/2 (for example a comment, chat message, or wiki page) can embed a code block whose info string is rust highlight_lines="1-100000000", forcing the native adapter to allocate roughly 8 bytes per line in the range. A payload that differs by only a few bytes can therefore allocate hundreds of megabytes, and a sufficiently large range (for example 1-2000000000) exhausts host memory and aborts the BEAM, denying service to every user of the rendering process. The per-line write loop additionally tests membership with a linear scan over the same vector, degrading rendering to a quadratic cost even for ranges that do not immediately exhaust memory. The vulnerable native code originally shipped inside mdex (in native/comrak_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs) and was later extracted into the separate mdex_native package (native/mdex_native_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs), where it remains unpatched. This issue affects mdex from 0.11.0 before 0.12.3, and mdex_native from 0.1.0 before 0.2.3.

INFO

Published Date :

June 29, 2026, 7:16 p.m.

Last Modified :

June 29, 2026, 8:17 p.m.

Remotely Exploit :

No

Source :

6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2026-53428 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

ID Vendor Product Action
1 Leandrocp mdex
2 Leandrocp mdex_native
CVSS Scores
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is a standardized framework for assessing the severity of vulnerabilities in software and systems. We collect and displays CVSS scores from various sources for each CVE.
Score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Score Impact Score Source
CVSS 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
CVSS 4.0 MEDIUM 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
CVSS 4.0 MEDIUM 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
Solution
Update mdex and mdex_native to patched versions to prevent excessive memory allocation.
  • Update mdex to version 0.12.3 or later.
  • Update mdex_native to version 0.2.3 or later.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-53428 is associated with the following CWEs:

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2026-53428 weaknesses.

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2026-53428 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2026-53428 vulnerability over time.

Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.

  • CVE Modified by 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

    Jun. 29, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added SSVC {'id': 'CVE-2026-53428', 'role': 'CISA Coordinator', 'options': [{'exploitation': 'none'}, {'automatable': 'no'}, {'technicalImpact': 'partial'}], 'version': '2.0.3', 'timestamp': '2026-06-29T19:17:11.005816Z'}
  • New CVE Received by 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db

    Jun. 29, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Affected [{'cpes': ['cpe:2.3:a:leandrocp:mdex:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*'], 'repo': 'https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex', 'vendor': 'leandrocp', 'modules': ["'Elixir.MDEx'", 'comrak_nif'], 'product': 'mdex', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': '0.11.0', 'lessThan': '0.12.3', 'versionType': 'semver'}], 'packageURL': 'pkg:hex/mdex', 'packageName': 'mdex', 'programFiles': ['native/comrak_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs'], 'collectionURL': 'https://repo.hex.pm', 'defaultStatus': 'unaffected', 'programRoutines': [{'name': 'comrak_nif::lumis_adapter::LumisAdapter::parse_highlight_lines'}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDEx':to_html/2"}]}, {'cpes': ['cpe:2.3:a:leandrocp:mdex:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*'], 'repo': 'https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex', 'vendor': 'leandrocp', 'modules': ["'Elixir.MDEx'", 'comrak_nif'], 'product': 'mdex', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': 'a8407611715d1ead35fbcba79c72cef1b7df387b', 'lessThan': '6ed94d905f97af188323f042698ae841c02293b4', 'versionType': 'git'}], 'packageURL': 'pkg:github/leandrocp/mdex', 'packageName': 'leandrocp/mdex', 'programFiles': ['native/comrak_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs'], 'collectionURL': 'https://github.com', 'defaultStatus': 'unaffected', 'programRoutines': [{'name': 'comrak_nif::lumis_adapter::LumisAdapter::parse_highlight_lines'}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDEx':to_html/2"}]}, {'cpes': ['cpe:2.3:a:leandrocp:mdex_native:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*'], 'repo': 'https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex_native', 'vendor': 'leandrocp', 'modules': ["'Elixir.MDExNative.Comrak'", 'mdex_native_nif'], 'product': 'mdex_native', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': '0.1.0', 'lessThan': '0.2.3', 'versionType': 'semver'}], 'packageURL': 'pkg:hex/mdex_native', 'packageName': 'mdex_native', 'programFiles': ['native/mdex_native_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs'], 'collectionURL': 'https://repo.hex.pm', 'defaultStatus': 'unaffected', 'programRoutines': [{'name': 'mdex_native_nif::lumis_adapter::LumisAdapter::parse_highlight_lines'}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDExNative.Native':document_to_html_with_options/2"}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDExNative.Comrak':document_to_html/2"}]}, {'cpes': ['cpe:2.3:a:leandrocp:mdex_native:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*'], 'repo': 'https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex_native', 'vendor': 'leandrocp', 'modules': ["'Elixir.MDExNative.Comrak'", 'mdex_native_nif'], 'product': 'mdex_native', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': '956528c5e31746253347029e810a969ab916fd27', 'lessThan': '798a363b4339f6f7162ec8437c4c9f9b5ae6fbf3', 'versionType': 'git'}], 'packageURL': 'pkg:github/leandrocp/mdex_native', 'packageName': 'leandrocp/mdex_native', 'programFiles': ['native/mdex_native_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs'], 'collectionURL': 'https://github.com', 'defaultStatus': 'unaffected', 'programRoutines': [{'name': 'mdex_native_nif::lumis_adapter::LumisAdapter::parse_highlight_lines'}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDExNative.Native':document_to_html_with_options/2"}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDExNative.Comrak':document_to_html/2"}]}]
    Added Description Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value vulnerability in leandrocp mdex allows an unauthenticated attacker to cause a denial of service through unbounded memory allocation. comrak_nif::lumis_adapter::LumisAdapter::parse_highlight_lines in native/comrak_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs eagerly expands a user-controlled inclusive line range from a fenced code block's highlight_lines decorator into a Vec<usize>, pushing one element per integer in the range with no upper bound on the range size. An attacker who can supply Markdown that an application renders with MDEx.to_html/2 (for example a comment, chat message, or wiki page) can embed a code block whose info string is rust highlight_lines="1-100000000", forcing the native adapter to allocate roughly 8 bytes per line in the range. A payload that differs by only a few bytes can therefore allocate hundreds of megabytes, and a sufficiently large range (for example 1-2000000000) exhausts host memory and aborts the BEAM, denying service to every user of the rendering process. The per-line write loop additionally tests membership with a linear scan over the same vector, degrading rendering to a quadratic cost even for ranges that do not immediately exhaust memory. The vulnerable native code originally shipped inside mdex (in native/comrak_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs) and was later extracted into the separate mdex_native package (native/mdex_native_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs), where it remains unpatched. This issue affects mdex from 0.11.0 before 0.12.3, and mdex_native from 0.1.0 before 0.2.3.
    Added CVSS V4.0 AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
    Added CWE CWE-789
    Added Reference https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-53428.html
    Added Reference https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex_native/commit/798a363b4339f6f7162ec8437c4c9f9b5ae6fbf3
    Added Reference https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex_native/security/advisories/GHSA-j93q-9cvj-rxfm
    Added Reference https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-53428
EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days. Following chart shows the EPSS score history of the vulnerability.