Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2026-68496 json

jackson-dataformats-binary: Smile parser does not enforce StreamReadConstraints.maxNameLength, enabling memory-exhaustion denial of service

published 2026-10-01 38 d ago modified 2026-10-02 37 d ago also EUVD-2026-90978

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.6%
EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 46%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The Smile parser in FasterXML jackson-dataformats-binary never invokes StreamReadConstraints.validateNameLength() when decoding JSON object property names, so the maxNameLength limit is not enforced for this format. SmileParser._handleLongFieldName() grows its internal name buffer through an unconstrained _growArrayTo() call and performs no length validation. An attacker who can have a Smile document parsed may therefore embed a single property name of unbounded length; the parser buffers the whole name in memory before returning it, whatever maxNameLength is configured to. Because StreamReadConstraints.maxDocumentLength is also disabled by default, nothing else bounds the name under default settings, so the only limits are the attacker's upload capacity and available heap, leading to memory exhaustion and denial of service. No privileges beyond the ability to submit data to a parsing endpoint are required, and exploitation needs only that the bytes reach SmileFactory parsing, directly or through an ObjectMapper configured with the Smile module. jackson-core's own JSON parsers enforce maxNameLength incrementally during name decoding; this gap is specific to the binary formats. maxNameLength and validateNameLength were introduced in jackson-core 2.16.0, so releases before 2.16.0 do not contain the constraint that is left unenforced. This issue is tracked together with the CBOR parser defect in the same vendor advisory, GHSA-3v8f-v6vx-fmrm, which covers both binary formats. The Smile parser defect (jackson-dataformats-binary issue #726) is CVE-2026-68496; the CBOR parser defect (issue #725) is assigned CVE-2026-68495.

Patch / fix

  • com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat jackson-dataformat-smile 2.18.10, 2.21.6, 2.22.2
  • tools.jackson.dataformat jackson-dataformat-smile 3.1.6, 3.2.2
  • jackson-core SLES for SAP 15 SP6, SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES for SAP 15 SP4 +8 more 2.18.11-150200.3.30.1
  • jackson-databind SLES for SAP 15 SP6, SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES for SAP 15 SP4 +8 more 2.18.11-150200.3.36.1
  • jackson-annotations SLES for SAP 15 SP6, SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES for SAP 15 SP4 +8 more 2.18.11-150200.3.28.1
  • jackson-dataformat-xml SLES for SAP 15 SP6, SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES for SAP 15 SP4 +8 more 2.18.11-150200.5.8.1
  • jackson-dataformats-binary SLES for SAP 15 SP6, SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES for SAP 15 SP4 +8 more 2.18.11-150200.3.29.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:4394-1

  • jackson-dataformats-binary openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.18.11-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:11878-1

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-2026-68496 updated cvss 7.5

com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat/jackson-dataformat-smile: jackson-dataformat-smile: Denial of Service via unconstrained property name length

  • Red Hat build of Apache Camel for Spring Boot 4 jackson-dataformat-smile 2.21.4.redhat-00002 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 jackson-jaxrs-providers, jackson-jaxrs-json-provider, jackson-jaxrs-providers-parent, jackson-jaxrs-providers-javadoc, jackson-jaxrs-providers-datatypes Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 jackson-jaxrs-providers, pki-jackson-jaxrs-providers, pki-jackson-jaxrs-json-provider Red Hat Offline Knowledge Portal offline-knowledge-portal/rhokp-rhel9 Red Hat Satellite 6 puppetserver, openvox-server 8.15.2-1.el9sat
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Fuse 7 jackson-dataformat-smile 2.21.4.redhat-00002
    not affected: vulnerable code not in execute path

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
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
38 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.56% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 46% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-dataformats-binary/security/advisories/GHSA-3v8f-v6vx-fmrm referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • FasterXML jackson-dataformats-binary

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
  • CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

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.

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