CVE-2025-9403
Description
A vulnerability has been identified in the jq JSON processor where malformed JSON input containing invalid Unicode escape sequences can trigger an assertion failure in the test suite’s parsing consistency checks. This flaw arises from inconsistencies between expected and reparsed JSON values during serialization and deserialization, potentially allowing an attacker to exploit the issue by supplying specially crafted JSON data to cause abnormal termination or denial of service during test execution, highlighting weaknesses in jq’s parsing reliability.
Statement
This vulnerability is limited to jq’s internal test framework and does not affect jq’s core functionality in production use. Exploitation requires supplying malformed JSON with invalid Unicode escape sequences during test execution, which can trigger an assertion failure and abnormal termination of the test suite. The issue is rated Low severity as it only causes test crashes in debug or development environments, without exposing sensitive data, compromising system integrity, or affecting jq’s normal JSON processing in production.
Mitigation
No action is required for production users, as the vulnerability only affects jq’s internal test framework and does not impact its core JSON processing functionality. Standard deployments of jq remain unaffected. Developers and testers are advised to avoid running the test suite with untrusted or malformed JSON input until a fix is applied.
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 v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 3.3 | 5.5 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | N/A |
| Privileges Required | None | Low | N/A |
| User Interaction | Required | None | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | N/A |
| Confidentiality | None | None | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | Low | High | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
An attacker that can trigger an assert statement can still lead to a denial of service if the relevant code can be triggered by an attacker, and if the scope of the assert() extends beyond the attacker's own session.
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