fix: Avoid O(n^2) backtracking in inline link href regex

[hong4rc]

Marked version: current master (regex unchanged since 18.0.5)

Markdown flavor: n/a

Description

The inline link regex parses an unclosed link followed by a long whitespace run in O(n²) time. marked.parse('[](' + ' '.repeat(n)) is just text — an unclosed link — but with default options the parse time roughly quadruples each time the input doubles: n=16,000 → ~0.3 s, 32,000 → ~1.2 s, 64,000 → ~4.9 s, 125,000 → ~21 s.

The cause is the unquoted-href alternative [^ \t\n\x00-\x1f]* in src/rules.ts. Since it can match empty at any whitespace position, when there is no closing ) the leading \s*, the (empty) href, the optional title separator, and the trailing \s*\) all re-partition the same whitespace run at ~n positions, so the engine backtracks quadratically. #3902 hardened the title separator ([ \t]* → [ \t]+|\n) against the same class of problem but left this zero-length href branch, so input that never reaches the title branch still backtracks.

The fix requires the unquoted-href branch to match at least one non-whitespace character (* → +) and keeps the legitimate empty-href case [foo]() via a (?=\)) lookahead. CommonMark specifies that an unquoted link destination ends at whitespace, so requiring ≥1 non-whitespace character there is spec-correct. After the change the same input parses in linear time (64 KB → ~1 ms) and ordinary links are unaffected: the full spec and unit suites stay green (test:specs 1749/0, test:unit 188/0), and I added test/specs/redos/quadratic_link_empty_href.cjs next to the existing quadratic guards so any regression fails fast.

Contributor

• Test(s) exist to ensure functionality and minimize regression: test/specs/redos/quadratic_link_empty_href.cjs.
• If submitting new feature, it has been documented in the appropriate places.

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[UziTech]

Thanks! 💯