icalendar: Algorithmic Complexity in Equality

Answer in brief

CVE-2026-55099 records a Unknown severity vulnerability in icalendar: Algorithmic Complexity in Equality. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps collective/icalendar (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.

Analysis pending evidence review

HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.

Published Aug 25, 2026Updated Aug 25, 2026Source checked Aug 25, 2026First seen by HOL Aug 25, 2026Material review Aug 25, 2026

Upstream Advisory

Key facts

Risk: Unknown severitySource severity not reported
Exploitation: Not marked as known exploited
Affected software: 1 mapped package or product
Fix availability: Not reported

Why this deserves its current priority

A CVSS score is not reported in the current record. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.

Analysis status

Analysis pending evidence review

Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.

Affected scope and exposure questions

The current feed maps collective/icalendar (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.

Mapped affected packages and fixed versions
Package	Affected range	Fixed version
collective/icalendargeneric	>= 7.1.0, < 7.1.3	Not reported

Recommended response

Check inventory. Check lockfiles and deployed manifests for collective/icalendar.
Review the reported fix. Monitor this advisory for an available fix and review any installs of the affected package.

Evidence timeline and material changes

Published upstream
Aug 25, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
Source modified
Aug 25, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
First seen by HOL
Aug 25, 2026

Sources and claim methodology

Upstream source description

icalendar is an RFC 5545 compatible parser and generator of iCalendar files for Python. From 7.1.0 until 7.1.3, the Component equality method in src/icalendar/cal/component.py compares nested subcomponents with two membership loops, and each membership test invokes the same method on child components, causing O(2^n) work relative to nesting depth. Component.from_ical accepts arbitrarily nested BEGIN:VEVENT blocks without a depth limit, so an attacker can submit a sub-kilobyte .ics file containing equal nested subtrees and trigger the cost when an application performs equality, inequality, membership, deduplication, test-assertion, round-trip, or normalization comparisons. Parsing alone does not trigger the issue, and comparisons that differ early short-circuit, but a few hundred bytes can pin a CPU core for minutes or indefinitely, causing denial of service in calendar sync or import endpoints, invite processing, and other comparison paths. This issue is fixed in version 7.1.3.

Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.