Vulnerability · Published Apr 13, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-33947jq: Unbounded Recursion in jv_setpath(), jv_getpath() and delpaths_sorted()
Medium 6.2
In plain English
A medium-severity security flaw in jq from jqlang. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 14% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official 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 packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine:v3.22 | jq | 1.8.2-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2026-33947 |
| Alpine:v3.23 | jq | 1.8.2-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2026-33947 |
| Alpine:v3.24 | jq | 1.8.2-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2026-33947 |
| Debian:12 | jq | 1.6-2.1+deb12u2 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-33947 |
| Debian:13 | jq | 1.7.1-6+deb13u2 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-33947 |
| Debian:14 | jq | 1.8.1-5 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-33947 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | jq | 1.6-2.1ubuntu3.2 | USN-8202-1 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | jq | 1.6-2.1ubuntu3.2 | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-33947 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | jq | 1.7.1-3ubuntu0.24.04.2 | USN-8202-1 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | jq | 1.7.1-3ubuntu0.24.04.2 | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-33947 |
| Ubuntu:25.10 | jq | 1.8.1-3ubuntu1.1 | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-33947 |
| Ubuntu:25.10 | jq | 1.8.1-3ubuntu1.1 | USN-8202-1 |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | jq | 1.8.1-4ubuntu2 | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-33947 |
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-674 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H