CVE-2026-33532CWE-674

yaml is vulnerable to Stack Overflow via deeply nested YAML collections

Medium · published March 26, 2026

CVSS v3.1
4.3
EPSS
1%
Percentile
45.5
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

`yaml` is a YAML parser and serialiser for JavaScript. Parsing a YAML document with a version of `yaml` on the 1.x branch prior to 1.10.3 or on the 2.x branch prior to 2.8.3 may throw a RangeError due to a stack overflow. The node resolution/composition phase uses recursive function calls without a depth bound. An attacker who can supply YAML for parsing can trigger a `RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded` with a small payload (~2–10 KB). The `RangeError` is not a `YAMLParseError`, so applications that only catch YAML-specific errors will encounter an unexpected exception type. Depending on the host application's exception handling, this can fail requests or terminate the Node.js process. Flow sequences allow deep nesting with minimal bytes (2 bytes per level: one `[` and one `]`). On the default Node.js stack, approximately 1,000–5,000 levels of nesting (2–10 KB input) exhaust the call stack. The exact threshold is environment-dependent (Node.js version, stack size, call stack depth at invocation). Note: the library's `Parser` (CST phase) uses a stack-based iterative approach and is not affected. Only the compose/resolve phase uses actual call-stack recursion. All three public parsing APIs are affected: `YAML.parse()`, `YAML.parseDocument()`, and `YAML.parseAllDocuments()`. Versions 1.10.3 and 2.8.3 contain a patch.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
4.3 · MEDIUM
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00553 · 45.5th percentile
Weakness
CWE-674 · Uncontrolled Recursion
Published
2026-03-26T19:49Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 26 MAR 19:49Z
    yaml is vulnerable to Stack Overflow via deeply nested YAML collections
    cvelistv5