Skip to content
OpenAdvisories
Low · 2.9 CVE-2026-33948 EUVD-2026-22158

jq: Embedded-NUL Truncation in CLI JSON Input Path Causes Prefix-Only Validation of Malformed Input

Published Apr 13, 2026 · Updated Apr 14, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

jq is a command-line JSON processor. Commits before 6374ae0bcdfe33a18eb0ae6db28493b1f34a0a5b contain a vulnerability where CLI input parsing allows validation bypass via embedded NUL bytes. When reading JSON from files or stdin, jq uses strlen() to determine buffer length instead of the actual byte count from fgets(), causing it to truncate input at the first NUL byte and parse only the preceding prefix. This enables an attacker to craft input with a benign JSON prefix before a NUL byte followed by malicious trailing data, where jq validates only the prefix as valid JSON while silently discarding the suffix. Workflows relying on jq to validate untrusted JSON before forwarding it to downstream consumers are susceptible to parser differential attacks, as those consumers may process the full input including the malicious trailing bytes. This issue has been patched by commit 6374ae0bcdfe33a18eb0ae6db28493b1f34a0a5b.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
jqlang jq < 6374ae0bcdfe33a18eb0ae6db28493b1f34a0a5b —

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 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1
SLES 15 SP6 jq 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1
SLES 15 SP5 jq 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1
SLES 15 SP4 jq 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1
Show 13 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 for SAP 15 SP6 jq 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1
SLES for SAP 15 SP5 jq 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1
SLES for SAP 15 SP4 jq 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1
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-2026:23873-1, SUSE-SU-2026:22705-1
SLE Micro 5.5 jq 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1
SLE Micro 5.4 jq 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1
SLE Micro 5.3 jq 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1
SLE HPC 15 SP5 jq 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1
SLE HPC 15 SP4 jq 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1
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 12

References