HSEC-2026-0011 json
Superlinear encoding of numbers with large coefficients
published 2026-11-03 5 d ago modified 2026-11-03 5 d ago
- cvss
- 7.5
- version 3.1, OSV
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- —
- no score, EPSS covers CVEs only
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
# Superlinear encoding of numbers with large coefficients
Encoding (pretty-printing) a `Scientific` number whose coefficient has many digits took time quadratic in the number of digits: the decimal digits were extracted by repeatedly dividing the whole coefficient by 10, once per digit. The `Show` instance, `Data.Text.Lazy.Builder.Scientific` and `Data.ByteString.Builder.Scientific` — which `aeson` uses to encode JSON numbers — all share this code path. A number with one million digits took about a minute to show, and about a tenth of a second after the fix.
This is a denial-of-service risk for applications that decode numbers from an untrusted source and encode them again, e.g. JSON proxies, loggers or API gateways built on `aeson`.
## Resolution
`scientific-0.3.9.0` reimplemented `normalize` and `toDecimalDigits` (the digit-extraction primitive) to be practically linear in the coefficient size.
Note that `scientific-0.3.9.0` introduced a regression of its own; see HSEC-2026-0012. Upgrade directly to `scientific-0.3.10.0` or later, which fixes both issues.
## Credits
Reported by Andrzej Rybczak (@arybczak); fixed by Oleg Grenrus (@phadej).
Patch / fix
- hackage scientific 0.3.9.0
- github.com/basvandijk/scientific#109 pull request
- github.com/basvandijk/scientific#116 pull request
- github.com/basvandijk/scientific#117 pull request
CVSS scores
| assigned by | version | score | vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| OSV | 3.1 | 7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
Affected packages
| ecosystem | package | affected | fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| hackage | scientific | <0.3.9.0 |
0.3.9.0 |
References
Sources
- OSV HSEC-2026-0011
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.