Description
cbor2 provides encoding and decoding for the Concise Binary Object Representation (CBOR) serialization format. Versions prior to 5.9.0 are vulnerable to a Denial of Service (DoS) attack caused by uncontrolled recursion when decoding deeply nested CBOR structures. This vulnerability affects both the pure Python implementation and the C extension `_cbor2`. The C extension relies on Python's internal recursion limits `Py_EnterRecursiveCall` rather than a data-driven depth limit, meaning it still raises `RecursionError` and crashes the worker process when the limit is hit. While the library handles moderate nesting levels, it lacks a hard depth limit. An attacker can supply a crafted CBOR payload containing approximately 100,000 nested arrays `0x81`. When `cbor2.loads()` attempts to parse this, it hits the Python interpreter's maximum recursion depth or exhausts the stack, causing the process to crash with a `RecursionError`. Because the library does not enforce its own limits, it allows an external attacker to exhaust the host application's stack resource. In many web application servers (e.g., Gunicorn, Uvicorn) or task queues (Celery), an unhandled `RecursionError` terminates the worker process immediately. By sending a stream of these small (<100KB) malicious packets, an attacker can repeatedly crash worker processes, resulting in a complete Denial of Service for the application. Version 5.9.0 patches the issue.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| agronholm | cbor2 | < 5.9.0 | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | cbor2 | 5.9.0-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | cbor2 | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 12 | cbor2 | No fix yet | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | cbor2 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | cbor2 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 25.10 | cbor2 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | cbor2 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | cbor2 | No fix yet | — |
SUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLES for SAP 16.0 | python-cbor2 | 5.6.5-160000.4.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:21139-1 |
| SLES 16.0 | python-cbor2 | 5.6.5-160000.4.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:21139-1 |
openSUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Tumbleweed | python-cbor2 | 5.9.0-1.1 | openSUSE-SU-2026:10425-1 |
| openSUSE Leap 16.0 | python-cbor2 | 5.6.5-160000.4.1 | openSUSE-SU-2026:20468-1 |
Azure Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure Linux 3 | python-cbor2 | No fix yet | — |
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PyPI | cbor2 | < 5.9.0 | 5.9.0 | GHSA-3c37-wwvx-h642 |
Advisories 3
- SUSE-SU-2026:21139-1 Security update for python-cbor2 SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Apr 22, 2026
- openSUSE-SU-2026:20468-1 Security update for python-cbor2 SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Apr 10, 2026
- openSUSE-SU-2026:10425-1 python311-cbor2-5.9.0-1.1 on GA media SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Mar 26, 2026