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CVE-2026-67216

cJSON cJSON_Compare Exponential Complexity Denial of Service PUBLISHED

Description (CNA)

cJSON through 1.7.19 contains an inefficient algorithmic complexity flaw in cJSON_Compare(). When comparing objects, the function recurses into each shared subtree twice, once in each direction, with no depth guard, making the running time exponential in nesting depth. A small, deeply nested document of a few hundred bytes (depth around 40) compared for equality consumes hours of CPU, and the cost roughly doubles with each additional level of nesting. An application that calls cJSON_Compare() on attacker-influenced JSON that is structurally equal to a reference document is exposed to a denial-of-service condition.

Affected (CNA)

Vendor / productVersions
DaveGamble / cJSONaffected 0 through 1.7.19

CWE

CWE-407

References

ADP enrichment

CISA-ADP

No English description supplied.

No references supplied.