CVE-2025-69534
Description
A flaw was found in Python-Markdown. Parsing crafted markdown content containing malformed HTML-like sequences causes html.parser.HTMLParser to raise an unhandled AssertionError. This unhandled exception allows an attacker to cause an application crash and potentially disclose sensitive information via its stack trace.
Statement
To exploit this flaw, an attacker must be able to supply a specially crafted payload to be processed by an application using Python-Markdown. Additionally, the security impact of this vulnerability is limited to an information disclosure via the unhandled exception stack trace and a denial of service. There is no memory corruption or arbitrary command execution. Due to these reasons, this issue has been rated with an important severity.
Mitigation
To mitigate this vulnerability, wrap your markdown parsing function in a try/except block. This catches the unhandled exception, preventing both the application crash and the stack trace leak.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 8.2 | 7.5 | 8.2 |
| Attack Vector | Network | Network | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | None | None |
| User Interaction | None | None | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | Low | None | Low |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | None |
| Availability Impact | High | High | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H
Red Hat CVSS v3 Score Explanation
This flaw allows an attacker to obtain sensitive information via the stack trace of the unhandled exception, such as file paths and library versions. However, an attacker does not have full control of what information is obtained. To reflect this condition, the confidentiality metric is set to low.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
An attacker that can trigger an assert statement can still lead to a denial of service if the relevant code can be triggered by an attacker, and if the scope of the assert() extends beyond the attacker's own session.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not sure what something means? Check out our Security Glossary.
Want to get errata notifications? Sign up here.
