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Fencer Intel
medium 5.5

CVE-2026-41257 json

jq: Signed-int overflow in `stack_reallocate` (jq VM stack)

published 5mo ago modified 14d ago also EUVD-2026-29163

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 3%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

jq is a command-line JSON processor. In 1.8.1 and earlier, the jq bytecode VM's data stack tracks its allocation size in a signed int. When the stack grows beyond ≈1 GiB (via deeply nested generator forks), the doubling arithmetic overflows. The wrapped value is passed to realloc and then used for a memmove with attacker-influenced offsets.

Patch / fix

  • jq Debian 12 1.6-2.1+deb12u2
  • jq Debian 13 1.7.1-6+deb13u3
  • jq Debian 14 1.8.1-6

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-41257

  • jq hummingbird 1 1.8.2-0.1.hum1

red hat advisories RHSA-2026:29986

  • jq SLES for SAP 15 SP6, SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES for SAP 15 SP4 +11 more 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1
  • jq Linux Micro 6.0 1.7.1-1.1
  • jq SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 1.7.1-160000.3.1
  • jq Linux Micro 6.1 1.7.1-slfo.1.1_3.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1SUSE-SU-2026:23873-1SUSE-SU-2026:22545-1SUSE-SU-2026:22566-1SUSE-SU-2026:22664-1

  • jq openSUSE Leap 16.0 1.7.1-160000.3.1
  • jq openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.8.1-3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21248-1openSUSE-SU-2026:10850-1

  • jq Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 1.8.2-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2026-41257

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • jq Azure Linux 3.0 1.7.1-6

azure linux advisories AZL-86369

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Is CVE-2026-41257 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-41257 updated cvss 5.5

jq: signed-int overflow in stack_reallocate

  • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2 automation-controller, ansible-automation-platform-26/hub-rhel9, ansible-automation-platform-26/controller-rhel9 Red Hat Ceph Storage 4 jq Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 jq
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Do not process untrusted input with the jq command line JSON processor.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 jq
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Do not process untrusted input with the jq command line JSON processor.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 jq Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Do not process untrusted input with the jq command line JSON processor.”
  • Red Hat Hardened Images jq 1.8.2-0.1.hum1
    fixed: vendor fix “Do not process untrusted input with the jq command line JSON processor.” RHSA-2026:29986

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
5mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.14% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/jqlang/jq/security/advisories/GHSA-4jm8-m363-4539 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 4.0 6.4 CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
CNA 4.0 6.4 CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • jqlang jq

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.