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7.5
jq JSON processor vulnerable to CPU exhaustion via crafted JSON input
DEBIAN-CVE-2026-40164
Summary
The jq JSON processor had a security flaw that made it slow down or crash when given a specially crafted JSON file. This could happen in various applications that use jq, such as continuous integration pipelines and data processing scripts. Update to the latest version of jq to fix this issue.
What to do
No fix is available yet. Check with your software vendor for updates.
Affected software
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fix available |
|---|---|---|---|
| debian | jq | All versions | – |
| debian | jq | All versions | – |
| debian | jq | All versions | – |
| debian | jq | All versions | – |
Original title
jq is a command-line JSON processor. Before commit 0c7d133c3c7e37c00b6d46b658a02244fdd3c784, jq used MurmurHash3 with a hardcoded, publicly visible seed (0x432A9843) for all JSON object hash table ...
Original description
jq is a command-line JSON processor. Before commit 0c7d133c3c7e37c00b6d46b658a02244fdd3c784, jq used MurmurHash3 with a hardcoded, publicly visible seed (0x432A9843) for all JSON object hash table operations, which allowed an attacker to precompute key collisions offline. By supplying a crafted JSON object (~100 KB) where all keys hashed to the same bucket, hash table lookups degraded from O(1) to O(n), turning any jq expression into an O(n²) operation and causing significant CPU exhaustion. This affected common jq use cases such as CI/CD pipelines, web services, and data processing scripts, and was far more practical to exploit than existing heap overflow issues since it required only a small payload. This issue has been patched in commit 0c7d133c3c7e37c00b6d46b658a02244fdd3c784.
osv CVSS3.1
7.5
- https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-40164 Vendor Advisory
Published: 14 Apr 2026 · Updated: 14 Apr 2026 · First seen: 14 Apr 2026