CVE-2026-105749: Docling: Unbounded table rowspan/colspan in HTML, JATS, ODS and BoxNote backends causes CPU/memory exhaustion

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2026-10-05 · updated 2026-10-08
Weakness: CWE-400

Description

Docling simplifies document processing by parsing diverse formats and providing integrations with the generative AI ecosystem. From 2.0.0 until 2.131.0, the HTML, JATS, OpenDocument spreadsheet, and BoxNote backends, including docling/backend/html_backend.py, docling/backend/jats_backend.py, and docling/backend/boxnote_backend.py, accept the rowspan and colspan attribute values without an upper bound and execute loops or allocate a table grid proportional to the declared span. A very small document can therefore cause sustained CPU use or multi-gigabyte memory allocation, and the document_timeout setting does not interrupt the single backend conversion call. Export through the TableData.grid property can further materialize the oversized grid. This issue is fixed in 2.131.0.

Affected products

docling-project docling: from 2.0.0 before 2.131.0 — fixed in 2.131.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: docling-project docling 2.131.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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