jqlang jq up to 1.8.1 JSON Parser recursion

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as problematic has been identified in jqlang jq up to 1.8.1. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component JSON Parser. Such manipulation leads to recursion. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2026-40612. The attack can be executed remotely. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in jqlang jq up to 1.8.1 and classified as problematic. Affected by this issue is an unknown code block of the component JSON Parser. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a recursion vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-674. The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

jq is a command-line JSON processor. In 1.8.1 and earlier, jv_contains recurses into nested arrays/objects with no depth limit. With a sufficiently nested input structure (built programmatically with reduce, since the JSON parser caps at depth 10000), the C stack is exhausted.

The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-40612 since 04/14/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. No form of authentication is required for exploitation. Successful exploitation requires user interaction by the victim. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1499.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 326028 (openSUSE 16 Security Update : jq (openSUSE-SU-2026:21248-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (326028) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-1469). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Affected

• Open Source jq

Productinfo

Vendor

• jqlang

Name

• jq

Version

• 1.8.0
• 1.8.1

Website

• Product: https://github.com/jqlang/jq/

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VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

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