Vulnerability · Published May 11, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-40612jq: Stack overflow via unbounded recursion in jv_contains
Medium 5.4
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 5% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Severity (CVSS 4.0)5.4Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 94.7% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: poc
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known
Official description
jq is a command-line JSON processor. In 1.8.1 and earlier, jv_contains recurses into nested arrays/objects with no depth limit. With a sufficiently nested input structure (built programmatically with reduce, since the JSON parser caps at depth 10000), the C stack is exhausted.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine:v3.22 | jq | 1.8.2-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2026-40612 |
| Alpine:v3.23 | jq | 1.8.2-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2026-40612 |
| Alpine:v3.24 | jq | 1.8.2-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2026-40612 |
| Debian:12 | jq | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-40612 |
| Debian:13 | jq | 1.7.1-6+deb13u3 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-40612 |
| Debian:14 | jq | 1.8.1-6 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-40612 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | jq | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-40612 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | jq | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-40612 |
| Ubuntu:25.10 | jq | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-40612 |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | jq | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-40612 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | jq | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-40612 |
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-674 · Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
References
- https://github.com/jqlang/jq/security/advisories/GHSA-r7m6-x9c7-h69j x_refsource_CONFIRM