Single-quoted postContent dynamic tags can exhaust PHP memory

Summary

A nested Dynamic Content tag using a single-quoted postContent type can recursively render page content until PHP exhausts its memory limit.

Expected behavior: Nested postContent Dynamic Content tags are detected and resolved safely without recursive rendering.

Actual behavior: The frontend request can repeatedly render the same content and terminate with an allowed-memory-size fatal error.

Impact: Affected pages can fail to render for visitors under the configured PHP memory limit.

Customer context

• Product / area: Otter Blocks Dynamic Content, frontend rendering
• Version: Telemetry observed versions 3.2.2 and 3.2.3
• Environment: WordPress 7.1; PHP 8.3.33; 128 MB PHP memory limit
• Reported error / symptom: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 32768 bytes)
• Impact: 2 fatal-error occurrences across 2 distinct production sites from 2026-08-19 through 2026-08-21.

Reproduction notes

1. Create or filter post content so it contains a nested Dynamic Content tag with data-type='postContent'.
2. Render a frontend page that resolves that Dynamic Content value.
3. The current guard does not recognize the single-quoted nested tag, and repeated content rendering can continue until the PHP memory limit is exhausted.

The exact production markup is unavailable; this reproduction follows the parser-accepted syntax and inspected frontend call path.

Diagnosis

Conclusion

The production fatal points to Dynamic_Content::get_exception_key() while dynamic content is being evaluated. Source inspection confirms a parser/guard mismatch: Dynamic_Content::dynamic_content_regex() accepts both single- and double-quoted data-type values, but Dynamic_Content::mark_exceptions() looks only for the literal double-quoted data-type="postContent". A nested parser-valid single-quoted postContent tag therefore remains unmarked, after which Dynamic_Content::get_content() applies the_content to that post content again. This is a concrete recursive-rendering path consistent with the shutdown-detected memory exhaustion.

Where this likely occurs

• inc/plugins/class-dynamic-content.php — Dynamic_Content::dynamic_content_regex() lines 93-107 accepts data-type values delimited by either quote style.
• inc/plugins/class-dynamic-content.php — Dynamic_Content::get_data() lines 443-472 routes postContent tags to Dynamic_Content::get_content().
• inc/plugins/class-dynamic-content.php — Dynamic_Content::get_content() lines 540-550 builds the exception key, then applies the_content to retrieved post content.
• inc/plugins/class-dynamic-content.php — Dynamic_Content::mark_exceptions() lines 898-912 detects nested tags through the double-quote-specific literal data-type="postContent".
• inc/plugins/class-dynamic-content.php — Dynamic_Content::get_exception_key() lines 943-952 is the telemetry location; it is repeatedly reached during the inferred recursive path.
• v3.2.3 contains commit f6a47092eca8a8b3e83c98220b90c507341ebf1b (release: fixes), which corrected context selection for this feature but retained the quote-specific guard condition. Telemetry includes 3.2.3 after that release.

Engineering notes

The inspected path is frontend render_block processing: Dynamic_Content::init() registers apply_dynamic_content() on that filter at inc/plugins/class-dynamic-content.php lines 25-32. The loop guard is intended to identify a postContent tag inside the source post before the_content triggers nested block rendering. The failure depends on markup reaching this parser with single-quoted attributes; the report does not include the affected page content, so this exact markup is an evidence-backed reproduction path rather than a confirmed production payload.

The crash is in Otter code, not the bundled Themeisle SDK, and no companion repository is implicated by the supplied telemetry.

Test coverage status

tests/test-dynamic-content.php lines 1171-1221 includes TestDynamicContent::test_post_content_guard_detects_nested_tag_in_context_post, covering the intended recursion guard with a double-quoted tag. No relevant coverage for single-quoted postContent markup was found during inspection. The existing long-content test at lines 710-720 exercises repeated replacements but not recursive postContent rendering.

What to verify or explore next

• Reproduce frontend rendering of a post whose content contains a nested <o-dynamic data-type='postContent'>…</o-dynamic> tag.
• Run the Dynamic Content PHPUnit suite with a single-quoted nested-tag case under a bounded PHP memory limit.
• Check whether block serialization, content migrations, or third-party content filters can emit the single-quoted form in supported editor workflows.

Unknowns / follow-up

• No structured stack trace or affected post markup was captured by telemetry.
• The available evidence does not establish how the two affected sites produced the parser-valid single-quoted markup or whether additional malformed/nested markup variants reach the same recursive path.

Confidence

Confidence: 88/100

The fatal occurs in Otter's recursion-guard path, and source inspection shows that the dynamic-content parser accepts single-quoted attributes while the guard only recognizes a double-quoted postContent attribute. This leaves a parser-valid nested tag unguarded and permits recursive frontend rendering.

Crash telemetry

Occurrences	2
Distinct sites	2
First seen	2026-08-19 23:38 UTC
Last seen	2026-08-21 05:12 UTC
Crash location	product:inc/plugins/class-dynamic-content.php:951
Request context	frontend
Inside Themeisle SDK	no
Product versions	3.2.2, 3.2.3
WP versions	7.1
PHP versions	8.3.33
SDK versions	3.3.58, 3.3.59

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Source: automated crash report — otter-blocks, fingerprint 0c1564bd69f5bbc3066bb86c49a064fe
Generated by bug-report-triage (ID: bug-report-triage_6a8a8c91010fb7.64532230)

Start in inc/plugins/class-dynamic-content.php, tracing dynamic_content_regex(), mark_exceptions(), get_data(), and get_content(). Run the Dynamic Content PHPUnit tests, especially tests/test-dynamic-content.php around test_post_content_guard_detects_nested_tag_in_context_post, then add coverage for single-quoted postContent markup. Done means nested tags in either supported quote style are detected without recursive rendering or memory exhaustion.