January 18

Saint MarkDownTime, Who Paused the READMEs

Patron of overlong Markdown tables, parsers that think too hard, and CPUs at 100%.

Life

Found by Legit Security and described in January 2023, he lived in Markdown libraries used by GitLab and countless projects. A carefully crafted text made the parser work for a disproportionate time, keeping the CPU busy until the service stopped. One well-written issue was enough for an afternoon of downtime.

Prayer

O Saint MarkDownTime, who turns an asterisk into an eternity, grant our parsers linear complexity. Amen.

How to celebrate

Celebrated by updating Markdown libraries and, as penance, writing a README without tables.

Write too much and everyone waits.