CVE-2026-67216

Severity CVSS v4.0:

HIGH

Type:

Unavailable / Other

Publication date:

29/07/2026

Last modified:

04/08/2026

Description

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.

Impact

Vector 4.0

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N CVSS v4.0 Severity and Metrics:

Base Score: 8.20 HIGH
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector (AV): Network
Attack Complexity (AC): Low
Attack Requirements (AT): Present
Privileges Required (PR): None
User Interaction (UI): None
Confidentiality (VC): None
Integrity (VI): None
Availability (VA): High
Confidentiality (SC): None
Integrity (SI): None
Availability (SA): None

Base Score 4.0

8.20

Severity 4.0

HIGH

Vector 3.x

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H CVSS v3.1 Severity and Metrics:

Base Score: 5.90 MEDIUM
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector (AV): Network
Attack Complexity (AC): High
Privileges Required (PR): None
User Interaction (UI): None
Scope (S): Unchanged
Confidentiality (C): None
Integrity (I): None
Availability (A): High