CVE-2024-28243Public exploitNetwork attack vector

Service interruption via exponential token expansion

Published Mar 25, 2024 · Updated Feb 5, 2026

Uncontrolled expansion in KaTeX 0.12.0 through 0.16.9 allows remote authenticated users to interrupt rendering via \edef input. The MacroExpander counts each macro as one expansion even when \edef doubles its output tokens, allowing exponential growth to evade maxExpand. The vulnerable path requires untrusted expressions to reach rendering and can exhaust memory, block the main thread, or overflow the stack.

CVSS severity6.5
Medium
EPSS probability1.41%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Uncontrolled expansion in KaTeX 0.12.0 through 0.16.9 allows remote authenticated users to interrupt rendering via \edef input. The MacroExpander counts each macro as one expansion even when \edef doubles its output tokens, allowing exponential growth to evade maxExpand. The vulnerable path requires untrusted expressions to reach rendering and can exhaust memory, block the main thread, or overflow the stack.

The record

CVE
CVE-2024-28243
Published
Mar 25, 2024
Updated
Feb 5, 2026
Vendor
KaTeX
Product
KaTeX
Classifications
CWE-674, T1499.004
Attack vector
network
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Mar 25, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Feb 5, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=>= 0.12.0, < 0.16.10

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

KaTeX · KaTeXversion=>= 0.12.0, < 0.16.10

Published CVSS scores

6.5GitHubCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 9, 2026Sep 15, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 15, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectornetwork
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitPublished

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-674Uncontrolled Recursion
T1499.004Application or System Exploitation

Public exploit references

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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