Vulnerability details
CVE-2026-84375
js-yaml: maxTotalMergeKeys does not limit CPU use for empty merge sources
Official description
js-yaml is a JavaScript YAML parser and dumper. From 3.0.0 until 3.15.2, 4.3.2, and 5.4.1, maxTotalMergeKeys in lib/js-yaml/loader.js and lib/loader.js does not count empty mapping sources while processing the merge key <<. An attacker can alias a large sequence of empty mappings into many merge targets, causing O(N * K) processing while totalMergeKeys remains unchanged and the configured resource limit is never reached. A relatively small YAML document can therefore cause prolonged CPU consumption in applications that parse untrusted YAML, and merge processing is enabled by default on these release lines. In v3 & v4, merge is enabled by default so the severity score is higher. This issue is fixed in versions 3.15.2, 4.3.2, and 5.4.1.
CVSS scores
| Score | Version | Source | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.5High | 3.1 | CVEProject cvelistV5 (CNA) (GitHub_M) | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| nodeca | js-yaml | >= 3.0.0, < 3.15.2 | CVEProject cvelistV5 (CNA) |
| nodeca | js-yaml | >= 4.0.0, < 4.3.2 | CVEProject cvelistV5 (CNA) |
| nodeca | js-yaml | >= 5.0.0, < 5.4.1 | CVEProject cvelistV5 (CNA) |
References and advisories
8- https://github.com/nodeca/js-yaml/security/advisories/GHSA-2883-xcg3-v3hh x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/nodeca/js-yaml/pull/797 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/nodeca/js-yaml/commit/3485bc06ff8a0251505f44a00414d90df2466639 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/nodeca/js-yaml/commit/6a8e05f9a485188ed730ac81e81ae221352ef480 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/nodeca/js-yaml/commit/d90b6612a5a84385bdcb556c44578eac76dc0f6b x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/nodeca/js-yaml/releases/tag/3.15.2 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/nodeca/js-yaml/releases/tag/4.3.2 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/nodeca/js-yaml/releases/tag/5.4.1 x_refsource_MISC
Details
- Published
- 2026-09-02
- Last updated
- 2026-09-29
- State
- Published
- Assigner (CNA)
- GitHub_M
Exploit prediction (EPSS)
SSVC assessment (CISA)
- Automatable
- Yes
- Exploitation
- None
- Technical impact
- Partial
Weaknesses (CWE)
- CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
- CWE-407Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity