CVE-2026-78661
Avoid quadratic complexity when coalescing text nodes in html in golang.org/x/net
What happened?
When coalescing adjacent text nodes in addText and fosterParent, appending to an existing TextNode's Data via string concatenation (n.Data += text) reallocated and copied the accumulated string on every token. Inputs containing many short text runs separated by ignored end tags (such as "a</x>") caused O(n^2) allocations and byte copies. Accumulate coalesced text in per-node byte slices during parsing and materialize Data strings once at the end of parse.
Affected software and versions
| Software | Version information | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| golang.org/x/net/htmlgolang.org/x/net | affected: 0 to < 0.62.0 | See vendor advisory |
Version information comes from the source record and can include unaffected products and exceptions. Distribution packages may contain backported fixes: an older upstream version alone does not prove a server is affected.
Is it being exploited?
This CVE was not listed in the CISA catalogue at our last retrieval. This does not establish that exploitation is absent.
How to respond
- Confirm the product, installed package version, and any configuration requirements in the vendor advisory.
- Follow the vendor’s remediation or workaround guidance in the references below. Structured fixed-version data is unavailable here; the publisher’s description may include a fix or workaround.
- Restart affected services if required, then verify the running version. Known exploitation may warrant investigation as well as patching.