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Medium · 6.2 CVE-2026-33947 EUVD-2026-22124

jq: Unbounded Recursion in jv_setpath(), jv_getpath() and delpaths_sorted()

Published Apr 13, 2026 · Updated Apr 16, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

jq is a command-line JSON processor. In versions 1.8.1 and below, functions jv_setpath(), jv_getpath(), and delpaths_sorted() in jq's src/jv_aux.c use unbounded recursion whose depth is controlled by the length of a caller-supplied path array, with no depth limit enforced. An attacker can supply a JSON document containing a flat array of ~65,000 integers (~200 KB) that, when used as a path argument by a trusted jq filter, exhausts the C call stack and crashes the process with a segmentation fault (SIGSEGV). This bypass works because the existing MAX_PARSING_DEPTH (10,000) limit only protects the JSON parser, not runtime path operations where arrays can be programmatically constructed to arbitrary lengths. The impact is denial of service (unrecoverable crash) affecting any application or service that processes untrusted JSON input through jq's setpath, getpath, or delpaths builtins. This issue has been addressed in commit fb59f1491058d58bdc3e8dd28f1773d1ac690a1f.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
jqlang jq < fb59f1491058d58bdc3e8dd28f1773d1ac690a1f —

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.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 jq 1.8.1-5 —
Debian 13 jq 1.7.1-6+deb13u2 —
Debian 12 jq 1.6-2.1+deb12u2 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS jq 1.8.1-4ubuntu2 —
Ubuntu 25.10 jq 1.8.1-3ubuntu1.1 USN-8202-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS jq 1.7.1-3ubuntu0.24.04.2 USN-8202-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS jq 1.6-2.1ubuntu3.2 USN-8202-1
Show 4 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS jq 1.6-1ubuntu0.20.04.1+esm2 USN-8202-1
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS jq 1.5+dfsg-2ubuntu0.1~esm2 USN-8202-1
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS jq 1.5+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1+esm4 USN-8202-1
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS jq 1.3-1.1ubuntu1.1+esm4 USN-8202-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Red Hat Hardened Images 1 jq +1 1.8.1-3.hum1 RHSA-2026:8579
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 15 SP7 jq 1.6-150000.3.20.1 SUSE-SU-2026:2983-1
Show 8 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES for SAP 16.0 jq 1.7.1-160000.3.1 SUSE-SU-2026:22566-1
SLES 16.0 jq 1.7.1-160000.3.1 SUSE-SU-2026:22566-1
SLE Micro 6.2 jq 1.7.1-160000.3.1 SUSE-SU-2026:22545-1
SLE Micro 6.1 jq 1.7.1-slfo.1.1_3.1 SUSE-SU-2026:22664-1
SLE Micro 6.0 jq 1.6-6.1 SUSE-SU-2026:22705-1
SLE Micro 5.5 jq 1.6-150000.3.20.1 SUSE-SU-2026:2983-1
SLE Micro 5.4 jq 1.6-150000.3.20.1 SUSE-SU-2026:2983-1
SLE Micro 5.3 jq 1.6-150000.3.20.1 SUSE-SU-2026:2983-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed jq 1.8.1-3.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:10850-1
openSUSE Leap 16.0 jq 1.7.1-160000.3.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:21248-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Alpine v3.24 jq 1.8.2-r0 —
Alpine v3.23 jq 1.8.2-r0 —
Alpine v3.22 jq 1.8.2-r0 —

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2023 jq +1 1.8.1-59.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-1815
Amazon Linux 2 jq +1 1.6-17.amzn2.0.1 ALAS2-2026-3496

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 3 jq 1.7.1-5 —

Advisories 11

References