Memory exhaustion via unreleased serialized strings
Published May 27, 2026 · Updated May 27, 2026
Memory leak in UltraJSON before 5.12.1 allows remote attackers to exhaust application memory by forcing ujson.dump() write failures. The objToJSONFile() function returns after a file-like object’s write() raises an exception without decrementing the serialized Python string, leaking the entire payload allocation. Exposure requires application code to pass an attacker-influenced, failure-prone file-like object to ujson.dump(); repeated failures drive linear memory growth and interrupt the hosting service.
Summary
What happened
Memory leak in UltraJSON before 5.12.1 allows remote attackers to exhaust application memory by forcing ujson.dump() write failures. The objToJSONFile() function returns after a file-like object’s write() raises an exception without decrementing the serialized Python string, leaking the entire payload allocation. Exposure requires application code to pass an attacker-influenced, failure-prone file-like object to ujson.dump(); repeated failures drive linear memory growth and interrupt the hosting service.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-44660
- Published
- May 27, 2026
- Updated
- May 27, 2026
- Vendor
- UltraJSON
- Product
- UltraJSON
- Classifications
- CWE-401, T1499.003
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 27, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 27, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=< 5.12.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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
- GHSA-c38f-wx89-p2xg memory-leak proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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