Vulnerability-Lookup

UBUNTU-CVE-2024-28244 (CVE-2024-28244)

Vulnerability from osv_ubuntu – Published: 2024-03-25 20:15 – Updated: 2025-07-16 05:13 – Source website

Withdrawn 2025-07-18

Details

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.

Severity

6.5 (Medium)


                    
                      CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

N/A (UNKNOWN)


                    
                      medium

References

URL

Type

	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2024-28244	REPORT
	https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/security/advisorie…	REPORT
	https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/commit/085e21b5da0…	REPORT
	https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/commit/085e21b5da0…	REPORT
	https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-28244	REPORT

JSON

To clipboard

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "availability": "No subscription required",
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "fonts-katex",
            "binary_version": "0.16.10+~cs6.1.0-2"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "katex",
            "binary_version": "0.16.10+~cs6.1.0-2"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "libjs-katex",
            "binary_version": "0.16.10+~cs6.1.0-2"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:24.04:LTS",
        "name": "node-katex",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/node-katex@0.16.10+~cs6.1.0-2?arch=source\u0026distro=noble"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "0.16.10+~cs6.1.0-2"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "0.16.4+~cs6.1.0-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "availability": "No subscription required",
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "fonts-katex",
            "binary_version": "0.16.10+~cs6.1.0-2"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "katex",
            "binary_version": "0.16.10+~cs6.1.0-2"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "libjs-katex",
            "binary_version": "0.16.10+~cs6.1.0-2"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:25.04",
        "name": "node-katex",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/node-katex@0.16.10+~cs6.1.0-2?arch=source\u0026distro=plucky"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "0.16.10+~cs6.1.0-2"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": []
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "details": "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.",
  "id": "UBUNTU-CVE-2024-28244",
  "modified": "2025-07-16T05:13:57Z",
  "published": "2024-03-25T20:15:00Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2024-28244"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/security/advisories/GHSA-cvr6-37gx-v8wc"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/commit/085e21b5da05414efefa932570e7201a7c70e5b2"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/commit/085e21b5da05414efefa932570e7201a7c70e5b2"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-28244"
    }
  ],
  "related": [],
  "schema_version": "1.7.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    },
    {
      "score": "medium",
      "type": "Ubuntu"
    }
  ],
  "upstream": [
    "CVE-2024-28244"
  ],
  "withdrawn": "2025-07-18T16:57:45Z"
}

CVE-2024-28244 (GCVE-0-2024-28244)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2024-03-25 19:45 – Updated: 2024-08-02 00:48

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.

Severity

6.5 (Medium)


                        
                          CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

SSVC

Exploitation: none Automatable: no Technical Impact: partial

CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)

Decision recorded 2024-03-27 19:31 UTC

CWE

CWE-674 - Uncontrolled Recursion

Assigner

GitHub_M mitre root Scorecard

References

2 references

URL	Tags
https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/security/advisorie…	x_refsource_CONFIRM
https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/commit/085e21b5da0…	x_refsource_MISC

Impacted products

1 product

Vendor	Product	Version
KaTeX	KaTeX	Affected: >= 0.15.4, < 0.16.10

Show details on NVD website

JSON

To clipboard

{
  "containers": {
    "adp": [
      {
        "metrics": [
          {
            "other": {
              "content": {
                "id": "CVE-2024-28244",
                "options": [
                  {
                    "Exploitation": "none"
                  },
                  {
                    "Automatable": "no"
                  },
                  {
                    "Technical Impact": "partial"
                  }
                ],
                "role": "CISA Coordinator",
                "timestamp": "2024-03-27T19:31:17.212689Z",
                "version": "2.0.3"
              },
              "type": "ssvc"
            }
          }
        ],
        "providerMetadata": {
          "dateUpdated": "2024-06-04T18:04:04.283Z",
          "orgId": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0",
          "shortName": "CISA-ADP"
        },
        "title": "CISA ADP Vulnrichment"
      },
      {
        "providerMetadata": {
          "dateUpdated": "2024-08-02T00:48:49.553Z",
          "orgId": "af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108",
          "shortName": "CVE"
        },
        "references": [
          {
            "name": "https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/security/advisories/GHSA-cvr6-37gx-v8wc",
            "tags": [
              "x_refsource_CONFIRM",
              "x_transferred"
            ],
            "url": "https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/security/advisories/GHSA-cvr6-37gx-v8wc"
          },
          {
            "name": "https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/commit/085e21b5da05414efefa932570e7201a7c70e5b2",
            "tags": [
              "x_refsource_MISC",
              "x_transferred"
            ],
            "url": "https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/commit/085e21b5da05414efefa932570e7201a7c70e5b2"
          }
        ],
        "title": "CVE Program Container"
      }
    ],
    "cna": {
      "affected": [
        {
          "product": "KaTeX",
          "vendor": "KaTeX",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "\u003e= 0.15.4, \u003c 0.16.10"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "descriptions": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "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."
        }
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "cvssV3_1": {
            "attackComplexity": "LOW",
            "attackVector": "NETWORK",
            "availabilityImpact": "HIGH",
            "baseScore": 6.5,
            "baseSeverity": "MEDIUM",
            "confidentialityImpact": "NONE",
            "integrityImpact": "NONE",
            "privilegesRequired": "LOW",
            "scope": "UNCHANGED",
            "userInteraction": "NONE",
            "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
            "version": "3.1"
          }
        }
      ],
      "problemTypes": [
        {
          "descriptions": [
            {
              "cweId": "CWE-674",
              "description": "CWE-674: Uncontrolled Recursion",
              "lang": "en",
              "type": "CWE"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2024-03-25T19:45:50.907Z",
        "orgId": "a0819718-46f1-4df5-94e2-005712e83aaa",
        "shortName": "GitHub_M"
      },
      "references": [
        {
          "name": "https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/security/advisories/GHSA-cvr6-37gx-v8wc",
          "tags": [
            "x_refsource_CONFIRM"
          ],
          "url": "https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/security/advisories/GHSA-cvr6-37gx-v8wc"
        },
        {
          "name": "https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/commit/085e21b5da05414efefa932570e7201a7c70e5b2",
          "tags": [
            "x_refsource_MISC"
          ],
          "url": "https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/commit/085e21b5da05414efefa932570e7201a7c70e5b2"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "advisory": "GHSA-cvr6-37gx-v8wc",
        "discovery": "UNKNOWN"
      },
      "title": "KaTeX\u0027s maxExpand bypassed by Unicode sub/superscripts"
    }
  },
  "cveMetadata": {
    "assignerOrgId": "a0819718-46f1-4df5-94e2-005712e83aaa",
    "assignerShortName": "GitHub_M",
    "cveId": "CVE-2024-28244",
    "datePublished": "2024-03-25T19:45:50.907Z",
    "dateReserved": "2024-03-07T14:33:30.036Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2024-08-02T00:48:49.553Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
  },
  "dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
  "dataVersion": "5.1"
}

Sightings

Author	Source	Type	Date	Other

Nomenclature

Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.

The MITRE ATT&CK techniques below are AI-generated suggestions, inferred from the description of the vulnerability by the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-classification-roberta-base model, served locally by ML-Gateway. They have not been verified by an analyst and are provided for guidance only.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
Browse all ATT&CK techniques and the vulnerabilities related to each.

Related by attack behaviour

Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.

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UBUNTU-CVE-2024-28244 (CVE-2024-28244)

CVE-2024-28244 (GCVE-0-2024-28244)

Tags

Sightings

Nomenclature

Related by attack behaviour