Bug 2514418 (CVE-2026-29036)

Summary:	CVE-2026-29036 cJSON: cJSON: Data corruption and unauthorized modification via JSON Pointer escape decoding
Product:	[Other] Security Response	Reporter:	OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component:	vulnerability	Assignee:	Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	high	Docs Contact:
Priority:	high
Version:	unspecified	CC:	anthomas, ehelms, ggainey, jpasqual, juwatts, mdellweg, mhulan, nmoumoul, osousa, pcreech, rchan, rhel-process-autobot, smallamp, tmalecek, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	Security
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	---
Doc Text:	A flaw was found in cJSON, a JSON parser and generator. This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to manipulate JSON Patch operations by supplying crafted JSON Pointer escape sequences. This can lead to silent corruption of data or the deletion of unintended keys, potentially bypassing authorization controls in applications that use cJSON for data modification. The flaw resides in the `decode_pointer_inplace()` function.	Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:		Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On:	2515200, 2515201
Bug Blocks:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-11 21:51:30 UTC

cJSON versions 1.5.0 through 1.7.19 contain an incorrectly-resolved name or reference vulnerability in the decode_pointer_inplace() function within cJSON_Utils.c that allows unauthenticated attackers to cause JSON Patch operations to target wrong object keys by supplying crafted JSON Pointer escape sequences (~0 or ~1) in patch paths. Attackers can submit malicious RFC 6902 JSON Patch input to applications using cJSONUtils_ApplyPatches() or cJSONUtils_ApplyPatchesCaseSensitive() to silently corrupt data or delete unintended keys, potentially bypassing authorization controls in applications that rely on JSON Patch for access-controlled data modification.