CVE-2016-4074

Description

From CVE.org

The jv_dump_term function in jq 1.5 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (stack consumption and application crash) via a crafted JSON file. This issue has been fixed in jq 1.6_rc1-r0.

Statement

Because this vulnerability requires that an unsuspecting user parses a specially crafted malicious JSON file, or that a service that does so accepts untrusted input, and because the consequences of this flaw are limited to exhaustion of the resources available to the user with whose privileges jq parses the malicious file, Red Hat assesses this vulnerability's impact as Low.

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Info alert:Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).

The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.

CVSS v2 Score Breakdown

Red HatNVDcve.org
Base Score2.67.8N/A
Attack VectorNetworkNetworkN/A
Access ComplexityHighLowN/A
AuthenticationNoneNoneN/A
Confidentiality ImpactNoneNoneN/A
Integrity ImpactNoneNoneN/A
Availability ImpactPartialCompleteN/A

Vector

Red Hat: AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

NVD: AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)

If an attacker can trigger the allocation of the limited resources, but the number or size of the resources is not controlled, then the most common result is denial of service. This would prevent valid users from accessing the product, and it could potentially have an impact on the surrounding environment, i.e., the product may slow down, crash due to unhandled errors, or lock out legitimate users. For example, a memory exhaustion attack against an application could slow down the application as well as its host operating system.

Access Control,Other

Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism; Other

In some cases it may be possible to force the product to "fail open" in the event of resource exhaustion. The state of the product -- and possibly the security functionality - may then be compromised.

Frequently Asked Questions

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