TI-2026-47532 Aliases CVE-2026-67216 GHSA-ff2v-f99f-wm3f

cJSON cJSON_Compare Exponential Complexity Denial of Service

HIGH 69CWE-407Published 2026-07-29 · Updated 2026-07-30

Key facts

Attack vector: Network
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Attack complexity: Low
Attack requirements: Present
Impact type: Denial of service
Confidentiality · integrity · availability: None · None · High
Fix status: No fix listed

Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-407.

Summary

cJSON through 1.7.19 contains an inefficient algorithmic complexity flaw in cJSON_Compare(). When comparing objects, the function recurses into each shared subtree twice, once in each direction, with no depth guard, making the running time exponential in nesting depth. A small, deeply nested document of a few hundred bytes (depth around 40) compared for equality consumes hours of CPU, and the cost roughly doubles with each additional level of nesting. An application that calls cJSON_Compare() on attacker-influenced JSON that is structurally equal to a reference document is exposed to a denial-of-service condition.

Why it matters now

Exploitation Proof of concept CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV

EPSS 0.00645 51st percentileScored 2026-11-07

Public exploit Yes 1 exploit referenceTagged by the CNA and NVD

Fix No fix listed No fixed version in the sources yet

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation: Poc
Automatable: No
Technical impact: Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

Vendor	Product	Affected versions	Fixed in	Status	Source
DaveGamble	cJSON	up to 1.7.19	—	No fix listed	CNA

cJSON VendorDaveGamble Affected up to 1.7.19 Fixed in — No fix listed CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 1

CPE	Versions	Role	Vendor
cpe:2.3:a:davegamble:cjson::::::::	up to 1.7.19	Vulnerable	DaveGamble

cpe:2.3:a:davegamble:cjson:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions up to 1.7.19 Vulnerable ·DaveGamble

Remediation

No fixed version listed by the sources yet.

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

Not affected: 2 products

Red Hat Hardened Images
Red Hat Satellite 6

Timeline

2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-67216
2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-ff2v-f99f-wm3f
2026-10-20 EPSS moved to the 50th–90th percentile
2026-10-31 Affected versions changed · Red Hat

References

Exploit 1

Security vulnerabilities in the cJSON JSON parser (Joshua Rogers)

Patch 1

cJSON_Compare double-recursion object comparison (cJSON.c)

TI-2025-35424 cJSON 1.5.0 through 1.7.18 allows out-of-bounds access via the… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
TI-2023-27613 cJSON v1.7.16 was discovered to contain a segmentation violation via the function cJSON_SetValuestring at cJSON.c. CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
TI-2026-47533 cJSON JSON Patch Non-Atomic Application Destroys Data Before Validation CVSS 4.0MEDIUM 6.9
TI-2019-08871 cJSON before 1.7.11 allows out-of-bounds access, related to multiline comments. CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
TI-2019-08870 cJSON before 1.7.11 allows out-of-bounds access, related to \x00 in a string literal. CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
TI-2016-08787 parse_string in cJSON.c in cJSON before 2016-10-02 has a buffer over-read, as… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8

See all 13 →

Sources

This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences