cJSON through 1.7.19 is vulnerable to uncontrolled recursion leading to stack exhaustion when an untrusted RFC 6902 JSON Patch is applied via cJSONUtils_ApplyPatches() or cJSONUtils_ApplyPatchesCaseSensitive(). A patch containing add and copy operations grafts duplicated subtrees to amplify document depth beyond the parser's nesting limit: cJSON_Delete() recurses with no depth bound, and the cJSON_Duplicate() guard CJSON_CIRCULAR_LIMIT is set to 10000, ten times the parser's 1000-level nesting limit and high enough to overflow a default thread stack. An attacker who can supply the patch document can crash the process, resulting in denial of service.

Attack Vector Network

Attack Complexity Low

Privileges Required None

Attack Requirements None

User Interaction None

Vulnerable System Confidentiality Impact None

Vulnerable System Integrity Impact None

Vulnerable System Availability Impact High

Subsequent System Confidentiality Impact None

Subsequent System Integrity Impact None

Subsequent System Availability Impact None

Attack Vector Network

Attack Complexity Low

Privileges Required None

Scope Unchanged

Confidentiality Impact None

Integrity Impact None

Availability Impact High

User Interaction None

No CVSS v3.0

No CVSS v2

This CVE is not in the KEV list.

No EPSS score available.

Exploitation none

Automatable yes

Technical Impact partial

Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).

Vendor Product Default status Versions
DaveGamble cJSON affected
Version Status Constraints
0 affected ≤ 1.7.19

No data.

No data.

No data.

Project Subscriptions

Vendors Products
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Advisories

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Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.

Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

References
Link Providers
https://github.com/DaveGamble/cJSON/blob/v1.7.19/cJSON.c#L253-L261 cve-icon
https://github.com/DaveGamble/cJSON/blob/v1.7.19/cJSON_Utils.c#L906-L940 cve-icon
https://joshua.hu/cjson-json-parser-cve-vulnerabilities cve-icon cve-icon
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/cjson-json-patch-copy-add-uncontrolled-recursion-stack-exhaustion cve-icon
History

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 15:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description cJSON through 1.7.19 is vulnerable to uncontrolled recursion leading to stack exhaustion when an untrusted RFC 6902 JSON Patch is applied via cJSONUtils_ApplyPatches() or cJSONUtils_ApplyPatchesCaseSensitive(). A patch containing add and copy operations grafts duplicated subtrees to amplify document depth beyond the parser's nesting limit: cJSON_Delete() recurses with no depth bound, and the cJSON_Duplicate() guard CJSON_CIRCULAR_LIMIT is set to 10000, ten times the parser's 1000-level nesting limit and high enough to overflow a default thread stack. An attacker who can supply the patch document can crash the process, resulting in denial of service.
Title cJSON JSON Patch copy/add Uncontrolled Recursion Stack Exhaustion
First Time appeared Davegamble
Davegamble cjson
Weaknesses CWE-674
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:davegamble:cjson:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Davegamble
Davegamble cjson
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

cvssV4_0

{'score': 8.7, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}

Projects

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: VulnCheck

Published:

Updated: 2026-07-29T15:59:48.983Z

Reserved: 2026-07-28T19:20:19.157Z

Link: CVE-2026-67215

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-07-29T14:33:44.906Z

cve-icon NVD

No data.

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses