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Semantic MediaWiki 3.0.0 before 7.4.1 DoS via Exponential Concept Expansion

5.3MediumCNA
Exploited
No known exploitation
Fix
Fixed in 7.4.1
Who is exposed
Not reported

Do first: Upgrade to a fixed version: 7.4.1.

Published
Last modified
Reference
Last checked
8/100 · provisional
None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub

Summary

Semantic MediaWiki versions before 7.4.1 are affected by a denial-of-service bug in how concept queries are expanded. A remote attacker with low-privilege login (such as page-edit rights) can craft chains of Concept pages that make queries through concept views, Special:Ask, or the API exhaust server CPU and memory.

Written by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 from the sources below. Verify against them.

Read the original description

Semantic MediaWiki 3.0.0 before 7.4.1 contains a denial of service vulnerability in the ElasticStore and SPARQLStore ConceptDescriptionInterpreter classes, which re-expand concepts without memoization or an expansion budget. Users with page-edit rights can build acyclic chains of Concept: pages that fan out, so queries via concept page views, Special:Ask, or api.php action=ask exhaust CPU and memory.

cve.now Index

8Pcve.now Index 8 of 100 · methodology v3 · provisional
  • Exploitation?/40Unknown. No CISA SSVC exploitation rating yet
  • Exposure3/25Reachable over the network · Unknown: No advisory context yet
  • Reach?/20Unknown. No tracked technology or package matched
  • Severity5.3/10CVSS 5.3
  • No patch0/5No signal

What would change the score

  • Would score about 63 if added to CISA KEV
  • Would score about 58 if CISA's SSVC rates exploitation active
  • Would score about 27 if advisories confirm default setups are exposed

What to do

  • Upgrade to a fixed version: 7.4.1.

Check your systems with an agent

Paste this into a coding or ops agent. It checks your systems read-only and reports a table per asset.

Check whether my systems are affected by CVE-2026-126565 (Semantic MediaWiki 3.0.0 before 7.4.1 DoS via Exponential Concept Expansion), using the cve.now data below.

Rules: work read-only. Do not run exploit code, proof-of-concept scripts or scanners that send attack payloads, and do not change any configuration, package, image or deployment. Report findings only.

What cve.now has for CVE-2026-126565 (entry last updated 2026-11-11):
Affected:
- SemanticMediaWiki SemanticMediaWiki: from 3.0.0, fixed in 7.4.1
Fixed versions: 7.4.1.
Setup: unknown whether the bug needs a non-default feature or setting. Check the advisory.
CISA KEV: CVE-2026-126565 is not listed as of cve.now's last read.
This KEV status is for CVE-2026-126565 only. If you also check another CVE, look up its own KEV status; never assume it from this one.

How to check:
- Installed software: check what is actually running, not what a repo declares. Read the version from each host, container image and Kubernetes node (the binary's version output, the OS package database, image layers), and check whether the conditions above hold there. Distribution packages may carry a backported fix under an older version number; confirm against the distribution's own advisory.

Verify against the linked advisories before concluding, and cite the date you read each one:
- https://github.com/SemanticMediaWiki/SemanticMediaWiki/security/advisories/GHSA-24v2-mf3g-84ch
- https://github.com/SemanticMediaWiki/SemanticMediaWiki/commit/86ce13254ffd91406ef43ea403ae072a7e3a38b3
- https://github.com/SemanticMediaWiki/SemanticMediaWiki/releases/tag/7.4.1
- https://github.com/SemanticMediaWiki/SemanticMediaWiki/blob/7.4.0/src/Elastic/QueryEngine/DescriptionInterpreters/ConceptDescriptionInterpreter.php#L34-L75
- https://github.com/SemanticMediaWiki/SemanticMediaWiki/blob/7.4.0/src/SPARQLStore/QueryEngine/DescriptionInterpreters/ConceptDescriptionInterpreter.php#L49-L105
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/semantic-mediawiki-3.0.0-before-7.4.1-dos-via-exponential-concept-expansion
Do not conclude an asset is unaffected unless you checked it and the evidence covers both its version and the conditions above. If you could not check something, mark it unknown and say what is missing.

Report a table with one row per asset and these columns: Asset | Version or build | Status (affected, fixed, not applicable, unknown) | Compensating controls | Exposure (internet-facing, internal, none) | Evidence | Next action.

Entry: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-126565
For follow-up questions, use the cve.now MCP server at https://mcp.cve.now/mcp (no authentication), for example get_vulnerability with id CVE-2026-126565.

Timeline

  1. CVE published
  2. First seen by cve.now

Affected versions

  • SemanticMediaWiki SemanticMediaWiki

    From 3.0.0 · fixed in 7.4.1

Evidence 8

Vendor advisory · 1

Establishes: Affected and fixed versions.

  1. Advisory

CVE record · 2

Establishes: The identifier and description.

  1. Record
  2. Record

Other links · 5

  1. Patch
  2. Repository
  3. Repository
  4. Repository
  5. Link

Corrections

None so far.

Something wrong on this page? Report an error. Every fix is listed here.

Questions about CVE-2026-126565

Is CVE-2026-126565 being exploited?

It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and CISA's SSVC assessment does not mark exploitation as active. That does not mean it has not been attacked: vendors and researchers can report attacks before CISA lists them. No public exploit code is tracked.Source: cve.now feed data

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-126565?

SemanticMediaWiki: from 3.0.0 before 7.4.1.Source: cve.now feed data

How do I fix CVE-2026-126565?

Upgrade to a fixed version: 7.4.1.Source: cve.now feed data