KaTeX's maxExpand bypassed by Unicode sub/superscripts

{
  "id": "c9a5a86503b6638e5e94aa3b72170e290bdf28a4f131bb28ad12db09480b06ca",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-28244",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "KaTeX's maxExpand bypassed by Unicode sub/superscripts",
    "summary": "KaTeX is a JavaScript library for TeX math rendering on the web. KaTeX users who render untrusted mathematical expressions could encounter malicious input using `\\def` or `\\newcommand` that causes a near-infinite loop, despite setting `maxExpand` to avoid such loops. KaTeX supports an option named maxExpand which aims to prevent infinitely recursive macros from consuming all available memory and/or triggering a stack overflow error. Unfortunately, support for \"Unicode (sub|super)script characters\" allows an attacker to bypass this limit. Each sub/superscript group instantiated a separate Parser with its own limit on macro executions, without inheriting the current count of macro executions from its parent. This has been corrected in KaTeX v0.16.10.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2024-28244",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "medium",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2024-28244",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2024-28244",
        "GHSA-cvr6-37gx-v8wc"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/katex/katex",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "575dab79f1772ab524fca3ca455f903e6195cb6e"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "ab323598fbf90a39c2c65bccd88f86b1ddfad931"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "085e21b5da05414efefa932570e7201a7c70e5b2"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:katex:katex:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0.15.4"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "0.16.10"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "085e21b5da05414efefa932570e7201a7c70e5b2"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "v0.16.9",
            "v0.16.8",
            "v0.16.7",
            "v0.16.6",
            "v0.16.5",
            "v0.16.4",
            "v0.16.3",
            "v0.16.2",
            "v0.16.1",
            "v0.16.0",
            "v0.15.6",
            "v0.15.5",
            "v0.15.4"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2024-28244.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:26.211345284Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2024/28xxx/CVE-2024-28244.json",
        "https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/security/advisories/GHSA-cvr6-37gx-v8wc",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-28244",
        "https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/commit/085e21b5da05414efefa932570e7201a7c70e5b2"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-674"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2024/28xxx/CVE-2024-28244.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2024-28244",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 492791,
  "published_at": "2024-03-25T19:45:50.907+00:00"
}