TI-2026-47533 Aliases CVE-2026-67217 GHSA-pr46-97qf-f32c

cJSON JSON Patch Non-Atomic Application Destroys Data Before Validation

HIGH 70CWE-696Published 2026-07-29 · Updated 2026-07-29

Key facts

Attack vector: Network
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Attack complexity: Low
Attack requirements: None
Impact type: —
Confidentiality · integrity · availability: None · Low · None
Fix status: No fix listed

Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.

Summary

cJSON through 1.7.19 applies RFC 6902 JSON Patch operations non-atomically in apply_patch() in cJSON_Utils.c. For a replace operation that is missing its value member, or a move operation whose destination path cannot be resolved, the existing target member is detached and deleted before the operation is fully validated, so the target document is mutated while cJSONUtils_ApplyPatches() or cJSONUtils_ApplyPatchesCaseSensitive() returns a failure status. An attacker who can supply the patch document can destroy addressable members of the target document even though the API reports that the patch failed, defeating the all-or-nothing behavior callers rely on to reject bad patches.

Why it matters now

Exploitation Proof of concept CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV

EPSS 0.00433 37th 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: Yes
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: 4 products

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Red Hat Hardened Images
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
Red Hat Satellite 6

Timeline

2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-67217
2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-pr46-97qf-f32c

References

Exploit 1

Security vulnerabilities in the cJSON JSON parser (Joshua Rogers)

Patch 1

apply_patch delete-before-validate ordering (cJSON_Utils.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-2026-47532 cJSON cJSON_Compare Exponential Complexity Denial of Service CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.2
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