Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2017-16114 is a denial-of-service issue in the marked Node.js module. A small malicious Markdown input may make the parser spend excessive CPU time, potentially slowing or blocking an application that processes untrusted Markdown.
Executive priority
Treat this as a service availability risk. Prioritize internet-facing or customer-facing systems that parse user-submitted Markdown, especially if they run on single-threaded Node.js request paths.
Technical view
The issue is a regular expression denial of service in marked, categorized as CWE-400 resource exhaustion. The public issue reports that about 1,000 characters can block processing for around six seconds. The provided sources describe denial of service only, not code execution or data compromise.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely in Node.js applications that use marked to parse Markdown supplied by users, customers, integrations, comments, tickets, CMS content, or other external sources.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show active exploitation, and KEV status is false. Exploitability depends on whether an attacker can cause the application to parse controlled Markdown on a performance-sensitive path.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to the CVE description, Node Security advisory reference, and GitHub issue. The bundle gives no CVSS score, no named fixed version, and no evidence of active exploitation.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory direct and transitive use of the marked package.
- Check the advisory and project issue for vendor-supported fixed versions or guidance.
- Avoid parsing untrusted Markdown without request limits and execution time controls.
- Apply input size limits where Markdown content enters the application.
- Monitor affected services for CPU spikes or request latency during Markdown parsing.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether marked is present in package manifests, lockfiles, or SBOMs.
- Map every marked usage to trusted or untrusted Markdown sources.
- Identify routes, jobs, or APIs that parse Markdown synchronously.
- Review runtime protections for body size, timeouts, and worker isolation.
- Check vendor guidance before declaring a version remediated.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-400: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2017-16114 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://nodesecurity.io/advisories/531CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/chjj/marked/issues/937CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.