diff --git a/vulnerabilities/helpers.py b/vulnerabilities/helpers.py
index 37fa7d1cb..95dc2d801 100644
--- a/vulnerabilities/helpers.py
+++ b/vulnerabilities/helpers.py
@@ -24,8 +24,9 @@
 import dataclasses
 import json
 import re
-from typing import Optional
 from typing import List
+from typing import Optional
+from typing import Tuple
 
 import requests
 import saneyaml
@@ -164,3 +165,29 @@ def __lt__(self, other):
         )
 
     return affected_package_with_patched_package_objects
+
+
+def split_markdown_front_matter(text: str) -> Tuple[str, str]:
+    r"""
+    Return a tuple of (front matter, markdown body) strings split from ``text``.
+    Each can be an empty string.
+
+    >>> text='''---
+    ... title: DUMMY-SECURITY-2019-001
+    ... description: Incorrect access control.
+    ... cves: [CVE-2042-1337]
+    ... ---
+    ... # Markdown starts here
+    ... '''
+    >>> split_markdown_front_matter(text)
+    ('title: DUMMY-SECURITY-2019-001\ndescription: Incorrect access control.\ncves: [CVE-2042-1337]', '# Markdown starts here')
+    """
+    # The doctest contains \n and for the sake of clarity I chose raw strings than escaping those.
+    lines = text.splitlines()
+    if lines[0] == "---":
+        lines = lines[1:]
+        text = "\n".join(lines)
+        frontmatter, _, markdown = text.partition("\n---\n")
+        return frontmatter, markdown
+
+    return "", text
diff --git a/vulnerabilities/importers/istio.py b/vulnerabilities/importers/istio.py
index 509bde08d..103044bc2 100644
--- a/vulnerabilities/importers/istio.py
+++ b/vulnerabilities/importers/istio.py
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 from vulnerabilities.data_source import GitDataSource
 from vulnerabilities.data_source import Reference
 from vulnerabilities.helpers import nearest_patched_package
+from vulnerabilities.helpers import split_markdown_front_matter
 from vulnerabilities.package_managers import GitHubTagsAPI
 
 is_release = re.compile(r"^[\d.]+$", re.IGNORECASE).match
@@ -80,45 +81,6 @@ def get_pkg_versions_from_ranges(self, version_range_list):
         safe_pkg_versions = set(all_version) - set(vuln_pkg_versions)
         return safe_pkg_versions, vuln_pkg_versions
 
-    def get_data_from_yaml_lines(self, yaml_lines):
-        """Return a mapping of data from a iterable of yaml_lines
-        for example :
-            ['title: ISTIO-SECURITY-2019-001',
-            'description: Incorrect access control.','cves: [CVE-2019-12243]']
-
-            would give {'title':'ISTIO-SECURITY-2019-001',
-            'description': 'Incorrect access control.',
-            'cves': '[CVE-2019-12243]'}
-        """
-
-        return saneyaml.load("\n".join(yaml_lines))
-
-    def get_yaml_lines(self, lines):
-        """The istio advisory file contains lines similar to yaml format .
-        This function extracts those lines and return an iterable of lines
-
-        for example :
-            lines =
-            ---
-            title: ISTIO-SECURITY-2019-001
-            description: Incorrect access control.
-            cves: [CVE-2019-12243]
-            ---
-
-        get_yaml_lines(lines) would return
-        ['title: ISTIO-SECURITY-2019-001','description: Incorrect access control.'
-        ,'cves: [CVE-2019-12243]']
-        """
-
-        for index, line in enumerate(lines):
-            line = line.strip()
-            if line.startswith("---") and index == 0:
-                continue
-            elif line.endswith("---"):
-                break
-            else:
-                yield line
-
     def process_file(self, path):
 
         advisories = []
@@ -212,10 +174,8 @@ def process_file(self, path):
         return advisories
 
     def get_data_from_md(self, path):
-        """Return a mapping of vulnerability data from istio . The data is
-        in the form of yaml_lines inside a .md file.
-        """
+        """Return a mapping of vulnerability data extracted from an advisory."""
 
         with open(path) as f:
-            yaml_lines = self.get_yaml_lines(f)
-            return self.get_data_from_yaml_lines(yaml_lines)
+            front_matter, _ = split_markdown_front_matter(f.read())
+            return saneyaml.load(front_matter)