CVE-2021-46877Network attack vector

Denial of service via unchecked JsonNode length

Published Mar 18, 2023 · Updated Feb 26, 2025

Resource exhaustion in FasterXML jackson-databind 2.10.0 through 2.12.5 and 2.13.0 allows remote attackers to crash a process. NodeSerialization.readExternal trusts the four-byte declared length and eagerly allocates a byte array before reading the payload, so an Integer.MAX_VALUE value requests roughly 2 GB of transient heap. Reachability requires an application to accept attacker-controlled JDK-serialized JsonNode data; ordinary JSON processing is unaffected.

CVSS severity7.5
High
EPSS probability1.12%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
Coverage for this vulnerability

See if you're affected

Explore vulnerability checks for your environment with Hinoki.

Book a demo

Summary

What happened

Resource exhaustion in FasterXML jackson-databind 2.10.0 through 2.12.5 and 2.13.0 allows remote attackers to crash a process. NodeSerialization.readExternal trusts the four-byte declared length and eagerly allocates a byte array before reading the payload, so an Integer.MAX_VALUE value requests roughly 2 GB of transient heap. Reachability requires an application to accept attacker-controlled JDK-serialized JsonNode data; ordinary JSON processing is unaffected.

The record

CVE
CVE-2021-46877
Published
Mar 18, 2023
Updated
Feb 26, 2025
Vendor
Unknown vendor
Product
Unknown product
Classifications
CWE-770, T1499.004
Attack vector
network
Privileges
unauthenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Mar 18, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Feb 26, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.

Is a vulnerable build present?

Affected buildAffected product and version details are unavailable.

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesunauthenticated

What is affected?

Affected products and versions are unavailable in this record.

Published CVSS scores

7.5GitHub Advisory DatabaseCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectornetwork
Privilegesunauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-770Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
T1499.004Application or System Exploitation

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

See the directory against your own environment.

Your stack

Check the software in your environment

Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.

Book a demo