# CVE-2016-10520: Regular Expression Denial of Service in jadedown

> Attackers can cause a denial of service in the jadedown library by submitting specially crafted input that triggers excessive regular expression processing.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 31 May 2018
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-6354-6mhv-mvv5

## What is CVE-2016-10520?

CVE-2016-10520 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in HackerOne jadedown node module, published on 31 May 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

jadedown is vulnerable to regular expression denial of service (ReDoS) when certain types of user input is passed in.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation), CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-10520?

2 open source packages ship an affected version, including jadedown. It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `jadedown` | npm | All versions to 0.0.3 | None |
| `jadedown` | npm | All versions to 0.0.3 | None |

Products: Jadedown Project Jadedown.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-10520?

No fix has been published for CVE-2016-10520 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2016-10520 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-10520 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-10520 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-10520 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in HackerOne jadedown node module, published on 31 May 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-10520 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- jadedown (npm): affected all versions up to 0.0.3; no fix listed
- jadedown (npm): affected all versions up to 0.0.3; no fix listed

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-10520/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-10520/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-10520
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-10520
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-10520

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-10520/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.