CVE-2026-54888
Uncontrolled recursion over deeply nested Markdown crashes the BEAM in mdex
Description
Uncontrolled Recursion vulnerability in leandrocp mdex allows denial of service via deeply nested Markdown input. mdex converts between an Elixir %MDEx.Document{} struct and Comrak's internal AST using two mutually recursive Rust functions, ex_document_to_comrak_ast and comrak_ast_to_ex_document, in the NIF source file document.rs. Neither function enforces a maximum nesting depth, so the recursion depth is bounded only by the structure of the input. An attacker who can get a Markdown document rendered (for example through MDEx.parse_document!/1 or MDEx.to_html/1) can supply a document with thousands of nested block quotes, which drives unbounded recursion across the NIF boundary and exhausts the native C stack. Because the resulting stack overflow is an uncatchable SIGSEGV raised inside a NIF, it cannot be contained by the Erlang runtime. It terminates the operating system process running the BEAM, killing every Elixir and Erlang process on the node, not just the caller that triggered the render. No authentication or special privileges are required. The vulnerable conversion code was extracted from mdex into the separate mdex_native package starting in mdex 0.12.3. This issue affects mdex from 0.3.0 before 0.12.3 and mdex_native from 0.1.0 before 0.2.3.
INFO
Published Date :
June 29, 2026, 8:17 p.m.
Last Modified :
June 30, 2026, 2:14 p.m.
Remotely Exploit :
No
Source :
6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
CVSS Scores
| 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 to version 0.12.3 or later.
- Update mdex_native to version 0.2.3 or later.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth
information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to
CVE-2026-54888.
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration
While CVE identifies
specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or
weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-54888 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-2026-54888
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-2026-54888 vulnerability anywhere in the article.
The following table lists the changes that have been made to the
CVE-2026-54888 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 Reference https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex_native/security/advisories/GHSA-3w4f-53g2-f66p Added SSVC {'id': 'CVE-2026-54888', 'role': 'CISA Coordinator', 'options': [{'exploitation': 'poc'}, {'automatable': 'no'}, {'technicalImpact': 'partial'}], 'version': '2.0.3', 'timestamp': '2026-06-29T20:47:22.348133Z'} -
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': ['comrak_nif', "'Elixir.MDEx'", "'Elixir.MDEx.Native'"], 'product': 'mdex', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': '0.3.0', 'lessThan': '0.12.3', 'versionType': 'semver'}], 'packageURL': 'pkg:hex/mdex', 'packageName': 'mdex', 'programFiles': ['native/comrak_nif/src/types/document.rs', 'lib/mdex.ex', 'lib/mdex/native.ex'], 'collectionURL': 'https://repo.hex.pm', 'defaultStatus': 'unaffected', 'programRoutines': [{'name': 'comrak_nif::types::document::ex_document_to_comrak_ast'}, {'name': 'comrak_nif::types::document::comrak_ast_to_ex_document'}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDEx':parse_document!/1"}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDEx':to_html/1"}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDEx.Native':document_to_html_with_options/2"}]}, {'cpes': ['cpe:2.3:a:leandrocp:mdex:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*'], 'repo': 'https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex', 'vendor': 'leandrocp', 'modules': ['comrak_nif', "'Elixir.MDEx'", "'Elixir.MDEx.Native'"], 'product': 'mdex', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': 'd0bc7d55177727c61d188ef465178ab3b81f4f2c', 'lessThan': '6ed94d905f97af188323f042698ae841c02293b4', 'versionType': 'git'}], 'packageURL': 'pkg:github/leandrocp/mdex', 'packageName': 'leandrocp/mdex', 'programFiles': ['native/comrak_nif/src/types/document.rs', 'lib/mdex.ex', 'lib/mdex/native.ex'], 'collectionURL': 'https://github.com', 'defaultStatus': 'unaffected', 'programRoutines': [{'name': 'comrak_nif::types::document::ex_document_to_comrak_ast'}, {'name': 'comrak_nif::types::document::comrak_ast_to_ex_document'}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDEx':parse_document!/1"}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDEx':to_html/1"}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDEx.Native':document_to_html_with_options/2"}]}, {'cpes': ['cpe:2.3:a:leandrocp:mdex_native:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*'], 'repo': 'https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex_native', 'vendor': 'leandrocp', 'modules': ['mdex_native_nif', "'Elixir.MDExNative.Native'"], '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/types/document.rs', 'lib/mdex_native/native.ex'], 'collectionURL': 'https://repo.hex.pm', 'defaultStatus': 'unaffected', 'programRoutines': [{'name': 'mdex_native_nif::types::document::ex_document_to_comrak_ast'}, {'name': 'mdex_native_nif::types::document::comrak_ast_to_ex_document'}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDExNative.Native':parse_document/2"}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDExNative.Native':document_to_html_with_options/2"}]}, {'cpes': ['cpe:2.3:a:leandrocp:mdex_native:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*'], 'repo': 'https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex_native', 'vendor': 'leandrocp', 'modules': ['mdex_native_nif', "'Elixir.MDExNative.Native'"], 'product': 'mdex_native', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': '956528c5e31746253347029e810a969ab916fd27', 'lessThan': '947696c47bc22bea5dffc0f78c946fa6b70ce183', 'versionType': 'git'}], 'packageURL': 'pkg:github/leandrocp/mdex_native', 'packageName': 'leandrocp/mdex_native', 'programFiles': ['native/mdex_native_nif/src/types/document.rs', 'lib/mdex_native/native.ex'], 'collectionURL': 'https://github.com', 'defaultStatus': 'unaffected', 'programRoutines': [{'name': 'mdex_native_nif::types::document::ex_document_to_comrak_ast'}, {'name': 'mdex_native_nif::types::document::comrak_ast_to_ex_document'}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDExNative.Native':parse_document/2"}, {'name': "'Elixir.MDExNative.Native':document_to_html_with_options/2"}]}] Added Description Uncontrolled Recursion vulnerability in leandrocp mdex allows denial of service via deeply nested Markdown input. mdex converts between an Elixir %MDEx.Document{} struct and Comrak's internal AST using two mutually recursive Rust functions, ex_document_to_comrak_ast and comrak_ast_to_ex_document, in the NIF source file document.rs. Neither function enforces a maximum nesting depth, so the recursion depth is bounded only by the structure of the input. An attacker who can get a Markdown document rendered (for example through MDEx.parse_document!/1 or MDEx.to_html/1) can supply a document with thousands of nested block quotes, which drives unbounded recursion across the NIF boundary and exhausts the native C stack. Because the resulting stack overflow is an uncatchable SIGSEGV raised inside a NIF, it cannot be contained by the Erlang runtime. It terminates the operating system process running the BEAM, killing every Elixir and Erlang process on the node, not just the caller that triggered the render. No authentication or special privileges are required. The vulnerable conversion code was extracted from mdex into the separate mdex_native package starting in mdex 0.12.3. This issue affects mdex from 0.3.0 before 0.12.3 and mdex_native from 0.1.0 before 0.2.3. Added CVSS V4.0 AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/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-674 Added Reference https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-54888.html Added Reference https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex_native/commit/947696c47bc22bea5dffc0f78c946fa6b70ce183 Added Reference https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex_native/security/advisories/GHSA-3w4f-53g2-f66p Added Reference https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-54888