Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
medium 6.2

CVE-2026-43896 json

jq: Stack Overflow in Recursive Object Merge

published 2026-05-11 5 mo ago modified 2026-10-26 13 d ago also EUVD-2026-29174

cvss
6.2
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 4%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

jq is a command-line JSON processor. In 1.8.1 and earlier, unbounded recursion in jv_object_merge_recursive() allows a crafted jq program to crash the process with a segfault. The function is reachable through the * operator when both operands are objects.

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-2026-43896

  • 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 Linux Micro 6.1 1.7.1-slfo.1.1_4.1
  • jq SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 1.7.1-160000.4.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1SUSE-SU-2026:23873-1SUSE-SU-2026:22900-1SUSE-SU-2026:22597-1SUSE-SU-2026:22637-1

  • jq openSUSE Leap 16.0 1.7.1-160000.4.1
  • jq openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.8.1-3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21318-1openSUSE-SU-2026:10850-1

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

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2026-43896

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-86375

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-2026-43896 updated cvss 5.5

jq: stack overflow in recursive object merge

  • 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 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 jq
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Do not process untrusted input with the jq command line JSON processor.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 jq
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Do not process untrusted input with the jq command line JSON processor.”
  • 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
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
5 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 4% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/jqlang/jq/security/advisories/GHSA-mg96-6h3q-g846 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 6.2 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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

  • jqlang jq

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.