{"id":66978,"date":"2026-06-29T15:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T15:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=66978"},"modified":"2026-06-29T15:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T15:30:10","slug":"uncontrolled-recursion-over-deeply-nested-markdown-crashes-the-beam-in-mdex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=66978","title":{"rendered":"Uncontrolled recursion over deeply nested Markdown crashes the BEAM in mdex_CVE-2026-54888"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{&#8220;lastseen&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;description&#8221;:&#8221;Uncontrolled Recursion vulnerability in leandrocp mdex allows denial of service via deeply nested Markdown input.\\n\\nmdex converts between an Elixir %MDEx.Document{} struct and Comrak&#8217;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.\\n\\nBecause 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.\\n\\nThe 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.&#8221;,&#8221;published&#8221;:&#8221;2026-06-29T19:10:38.151Z&#8221;,&#8221;modified&#8221;:&#8221;2026-06-29T19:10:38.151Z&#8221;,&#8221;type&#8221;:&#8221;cve&#8221;,&#8221;title&#8221;:&#8221;Uncontrolled recursion over deeply nested Markdown crashes the BEAM in mdex&#8221;,&#8221;source&#8221;:&#8221;EEF&#8221;,&#8221;references&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/github.com\/leandrocp\/mdex_native\/security\/advisories\/GHSA-3w4f-53g2-f66p\\nhttps:\/\/cna.erlef.org\/cves\/CVE-2026-54888.html\\nhttps:\/\/osv.dev\/vulnerability\/EEF-CVE-2026-54888\\nhttps:\/\/github.com\/leandrocp\/mdex_native\/commit\/947696c47bc22bea5dffc0f78c946fa6b70ce183&#8243;,&#8221;id&#8221;:&#8221;CVE-2026-54888&#8243;,&#8221;bulletinFamily&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;cwe&#8221;:[&#8220;CWE-674&#8243;],&#8221;cvelist&#8221;:null,&#8221;sourceData&#8221;:&#8221;leandrocp mdex 0.3.0\\nleandrocp mdex d0bc7d55177727c61d188ef465178ab3b81f4f2c\\nleandrocp mdex_native 0.1.0\\nleandrocp mdex_native 956528c5e31746253347029e810a969ab916fd27&#8243;,&#8221;sourceHref&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;cvss&#8221;:{&#8220;score&#8221;:6.9,&#8221;severity&#8221;:&#8221;MEDIUM&#8221;,&#8221;vector&#8221;:&#8221;CVSS:4.0\/AV:L\/AC:L\/AT:N\/PR:N\/UI:N\/VC:N\/VI:N\/VA:H\/SC:N\/SI:N\/SA:N&#8221;,&#8221;version&#8221;:&#8221;4.0&#8243;},&#8221;cvss2&#8243;:{},&#8221;cvss3&#8243;:{&#8220;version&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;vectorString&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;baseScore&#8221;:0,&#8221;baseSeverity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;attackVector&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;attackComplexity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;privilegesRequired&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;userInteraction&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;scope&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;confidentialityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;integrityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;availabilityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;cvssV3&#8243;:{&#8220;version&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;vectorString&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;baseScore&#8221;:0,&#8221;baseSeverity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;attackVector&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;attackComplexity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;privilegesRequired&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;userInteraction&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;scope&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;confidentialityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;integrityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;availabilityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;}},&#8221;href&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;category_name&#8221;:&#8221;CVE&#8221;,&#8221;post_link&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;product&#8221;:&#8221;mdex&#8221;,&#8221;version&#8221;:&#8221;0.3.0&#8243;,&#8221;vendor&#8221;:&#8221;leandrocp&#8221;,&#8221;ai_description&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_severity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_vendor&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_product&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_version&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_score&#8221;:0}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{&#8220;lastseen&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;description&#8221;:&#8221;Uncontrolled Recursion vulnerability in leandrocp mdex allows denial of service via deeply nested Markdown input.\\n\\nmdex converts between an Elixir %MDEx.Document{} struct and Comrak&#8217;s internal AST&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6,8,48,12,21,13,7,11,5],"class_list":["post-66978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-category_cve","tag-cve","tag-cvss","tag-cvss-69","tag-exploit","tag-medium","tag-news","tag-security","tag-tapic","tag-vulnerability"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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