Service interruption via unbounded JSON recursion
Published Dec 13, 2022 · Updated Apr 22, 2025
Stack overflow in Jettison before 1.5.2 allows remote attackers to interrupt applications that parse crafted JSON data. JSONTokener recursively constructs JSONObject or JSONArray instances for each nested opening brace without enforcing a recursion-depth limit. Exploitation requires an application to pass attacker-controlled JSON to Jettison; excessive nesting raises a StackOverflowError and interrupts the calling application's service.
Summary
What happened
Stack overflow in Jettison before 1.5.2 allows remote attackers to interrupt applications that parse crafted JSON data. JSONTokener recursively constructs JSONObject or JSONArray instances for each nested opening brace without enforcing a recursion-depth limit. Exploitation requires an application to pass attacker-controlled JSON to Jettison; excessive nesting raises a StackOverflowError and interrupts the calling application's service.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-45685
- Published
- Dec 13, 2022
- Updated
- Apr 22, 2025
- Vendor
- Unknown vendor
- Product
- Unknown product
- Classifications
- CWE-787, T1499
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Dec 13, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Apr 22, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Affected products and versions are unavailable in this record.
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.
Public exploit references
- Deeply nested JSON JSONObject reproducerproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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