KaTeX up to 0.16.9 Mathematical Expression recursion

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in KaTeX up to 0.16.9 and classified as critical. This affects an unknown part of the component Mathematical Expression Handler. The manipulation leads to recursion. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2024-28244. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. No exploit exists. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in KaTeX up to 0.16.9. This issue affects an unknown part of the component Mathematical Expression Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a recursion vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-674. The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack. Impacted is availability. The summary by CVE is:

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.

The advisory is shared at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2024-28244 since 03/07/2024. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1499 for this issue.

Upgrading to version 0.16.10 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 085e21b5da05414efefa932570e7201a7c70e5b2 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Name

• KaTeX

Version

• 0.16.0
• 0.16.1
• 0.16.2
• 0.16.3
• 0.16.4
• 0.16.5
• 0.16.6
• 0.16.7
• 0.16.8
• 0.16.9

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/

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CPE 2.2info

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Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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