8.2
HIGH CVSS 4.0
CVE-2026-68750
Quadratic sibling re-flattening in the html_sanitize_ex traversal engine allows CPU-exhaustion denial of service
Description

Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity vulnerability in the traversal engine in rrrene html_sanitize_ex allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to exhaust server CPU and memory via a flat run of sibling elements in sanitized HTML. The list clause of HtmlSanitizeEx.Traverser.traverse/2 recurses on the tail of a sibling list and then evaluates List.flatten([head] ++ tail) over the already flattened result, so every one of n siblings copies and re-walks the entire remaining tail. The flattening is only needed for the rare case where scrub returns several replacement nodes for one node, but the cost is paid across the whole tail at every step, making traversal quadratic in sibling count. The traverser sits on every public entry point, so no particular scrubber or configuration is required and the payload needs only allowed tags. A 160 KB body of 20,000 sibling elements occupies a scheduler for roughly 1.7 seconds, and the cost grows faster than the body does. This issue affects html_sanitize_ex: from 0.3.1 before 1.5.3.

INFO

Published Date :

Aug. 6, 2026, 4:16 p.m.

Last Modified :

Aug. 6, 2026, 4:16 p.m.

Remotely Exploit :

Yes !

Source :

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

The following products are affected by CVE-2026-68750 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.

No affected product recoded yet

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 4.0 HIGH 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
CVSS 4.0 HIGH 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
Solution
Update html_sanitize_ex to version 1.5.3 or later to fix CPU and memory exhaustion.
  • Update html_sanitize_ex to version 1.5.3 or later.
  • Apply vendor patches if available.
  • Monitor server resource utilization.
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-2026-68750 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-2026-68750 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-2026-68750 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2026-68750 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.

  • New CVE Received by 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db

    Aug. 06, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Affected [{'cpes': ['cpe:2.3:a:rrrene:html_sanitize_ex:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*'], 'repo': 'https://github.com/rrrene/html_sanitize_ex', 'vendor': 'rrrene', 'modules': ["'Elixir.HtmlSanitizeEx.Traverser'", "'Elixir.HtmlSanitizeEx'"], 'product': 'html_sanitize_ex', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': '0.3.1', 'lessThan': '1.5.3', 'versionType': 'semver'}], 'packageURL': 'pkg:hex/html_sanitize_ex', 'packageName': 'html_sanitize_ex', 'programFiles': ['lib/html_sanitize_ex/traverser.ex', 'lib/html_sanitize_ex.ex'], 'collectionURL': 'https://repo.hex.pm', 'defaultStatus': 'unaffected', 'programRoutines': [{'name': "'Elixir.HtmlSanitizeEx.Traverser':traverse/2"}, {'name': "'Elixir.HtmlSanitizeEx':basic_html/1"}, {'name': "'Elixir.HtmlSanitizeEx':html5/1"}, {'name': "'Elixir.HtmlSanitizeEx':markdown_html/1"}, {'name': "'Elixir.HtmlSanitizeEx':strip_tags/1"}]}, {'cpes': ['cpe:2.3:a:rrrene:html_sanitize_ex:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*'], 'repo': 'https://github.com/rrrene/html_sanitize_ex', 'vendor': 'rrrene', 'modules': ["'Elixir.HtmlSanitizeEx.Traverser'", "'Elixir.HtmlSanitizeEx'"], 'product': 'html_sanitize_ex', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': '69ea11d61525c470b39b6860d024770d5573ff1f', 'lessThan': '9f5ccedbed230930813f992a1e6906fcf485981e', 'versionType': 'git'}], 'packageURL': 'pkg:github/rrrene/html_sanitize_ex', 'packageName': 'rrrene/html_sanitize_ex', 'programFiles': ['lib/html_sanitize_ex/traverser.ex', 'lib/html_sanitize_ex.ex'], 'collectionURL': 'https://github.com', 'defaultStatus': 'unaffected', 'programRoutines': [{'name': "'Elixir.HtmlSanitizeEx.Traverser':traverse/2"}, {'name': "'Elixir.HtmlSanitizeEx':basic_html/1"}, {'name': "'Elixir.HtmlSanitizeEx':html5/1"}, {'name': "'Elixir.HtmlSanitizeEx':markdown_html/1"}, {'name': "'Elixir.HtmlSanitizeEx':strip_tags/1"}]}]
    Added Description Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity vulnerability in the traversal engine in rrrene html_sanitize_ex allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to exhaust server CPU and memory via a flat run of sibling elements in sanitized HTML. The list clause of HtmlSanitizeEx.Traverser.traverse/2 recurses on the tail of a sibling list and then evaluates List.flatten([head] ++ tail) over the already flattened result, so every one of n siblings copies and re-walks the entire remaining tail. The flattening is only needed for the rare case where scrub returns several replacement nodes for one node, but the cost is paid across the whole tail at every step, making traversal quadratic in sibling count. The traverser sits on every public entry point, so no particular scrubber or configuration is required and the payload needs only allowed tags. A 160 KB body of 20,000 sibling elements occupies a scheduler for roughly 1.7 seconds, and the cost grows faster than the body does. This issue affects html_sanitize_ex: from 0.3.1 before 1.5.3.
    Added CVSS V4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/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-407
    Added Reference https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-68750.html
    Added Reference https://github.com/rrrene/html_sanitize_ex/commit/9f5ccedbed230930813f992a1e6906fcf485981e
    Added Reference https://github.com/rrrene/html_sanitize_ex/security/advisories/GHSA-463q-p2fr-mh9p
    Added Reference https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-68750
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.