Application crash via malformed JSON memory leak
Published Jun 6, 2023 · Updated Jan 8, 2025
Memory leak in YAJL 2.1.0 allows remote attackers to crash applications that parse crafted JSON with yajl_tree_parse. On a parse error, yajl_tree_parse frees the parser handle but abandons partially built context stack nodes and values allocated by context_push and parsing callbacks. Exploitation requires a consuming application to pass attacker-controlled malformed JSON to this API often enough to exhaust memory and terminate the process.
Summary
What happened
Memory leak in YAJL 2.1.0 allows remote attackers to crash applications that parse crafted JSON with yajl_tree_parse. On a parse error, yajl_tree_parse frees the parser handle but abandons partially built context stack nodes and values allocated by context_push and parsing callbacks. Exploitation requires a consuming application to pass attacker-controlled malformed JSON to this API often enough to exhaust memory and terminate the process.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-33460
- Published
- Jun 6, 2023
- Updated
- Jan 8, 2025
- Vendor
- Unknown vendor
- Product
- Unknown product
- Classifications
- CWE-401, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jun 6, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 8, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Malformed JSON LeakSanitizer proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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