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Fencer Vulns
low 2.9

CVE-2023-53154 json

parse_string in cJSON before 1.7.18 has a heap-based buffer over-read via {"1":1, with no trailing newline if cJSON_ParseWithLength is call…

published 2025-05-23 17 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2023-59777

cvss
2.9
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 20%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

parse_string in cJSON before 1.7.18 has a heap-based buffer over-read via {"1":1, with no trailing newline if cJSON_ParseWithLength is called.

Patch / fix

  • cJSON project cJSON 1.7.18
  • cjson Debian 12 1.7.15-1+deb12u3
  • cjson Debian 14, Debian 13 1.7.18-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53154

  • cjson Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 1.7.15-1ubuntu0.1
  • cjson Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS 1.7.10-1.1ubuntu0.1~esm1
  • cjson Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS 1.7.17-1ubuntu0.1~esm3

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53154

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • apparmor CBL-Mariner 2.0 3.0.4-5
  • apparmor Azure Linux 3.0 3.1.7-1

azure linux advisories AZL-62005AZL-67455

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

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-2023-53154 updated cvss 5.1

cjson: Heap based buffer overflow at cJSON_ParseWithLength function

  • Red Hat Satellite 6 cjson
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”

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
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
17 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.28% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 20% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/DaveGamble/cJSON/issues/800 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 2.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • cJSON project cJSON

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns 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.