jackson-dataformat-cbor: quadratic-time TagList growth on unbounded stacked tags (CPU/GC DoS, PoC)
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2026-106554 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | HeroDevs |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2026-11-04 16:17:32 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-11-04 16:17:32 UTC |
| Description | One CBOR-parsing issue in jackson-dataformats-binary's CBOR module: an unbounded run of CBOR tags drives quadratic-time TagList growth (CPU/GC-exhaustion DoS, PoC-proven). PoC executed against com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat:jackson-dataformat-cbor:2.18.2; present in current 2.x and 3.x (tools.jackson.dataformat.cbor) HEAD. Distinct from the Avro and Smile/Protobuf advisories for this repo. Quadratic CPU/GC DoS from an unbounded chain of CBOR tags (PoC-proven). File: cbor/src/main/java/.../cbor/CBORParser.java (tag handling -> TagList). CBOR permits a data item to be preceded by any number of semantic tags. The CBOR parser accumulates them in a TagList whose backing array grows by a fixed increment (+8), not by doubling, and re-scans/copies on each growth. An attacker sends a value preceded by a long run of tag bytes; the fixed-increment growth makes accumulating N tags O(N^2) in time (plus GC pressure), with no cap on the number of stacked tags. PoC (executed, JDK 17): feeding a CBOR stream consisting of a long run of tag bytes (e.g. tag 0xC0+) before a trivial value forces quadratic CPU/GC; parse time grows super-linearly with the tag count, pinning a request thread with no configurable limit. Impact. Algorithmic-complexity denial of service (CWE-407): a modest input of stacked tags consumes quadratic CPU/GC, pinning a request thread; concurrent requests exhaust the pool. Fix. Grow TagList by doubling and/or cap the number of stacked tags (StreamReadConstraints-style). |
Risk And Classification
Problem Types: CWE-407 | CWE-407 CWE-407 Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity
Vendor Declared Affected Products
| Source | Vendor | Product | Version | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | FasterXML | Jackson-dataformat-cbor | affected 2.15.0 2.18.12 maven | Not specified |
| CNA | FasterXML | Jackson-dataformat-cbor | unaffected 2.18.12 maven | Not specified |
| CNA | FasterXML | Jackson-dataformat-cbor | affected 2.19.0 2.21.8 maven | Not specified |
| CNA | FasterXML | Jackson-dataformat-cbor | unaffected 2.21.8 maven | Not specified |
| CNA | FasterXML | Jackson-dataformat-cbor | affected 2.22.0 2.22.4 maven | Not specified |
| CNA | FasterXML | Jackson-dataformat-cbor | unaffected 2.22.4 maven | Not specified |
| CNA | FasterXML | Jackson-dataformat-cbor | affected 3.0.0 3.1.8 maven | Not specified |
| CNA | FasterXML | Jackson-dataformat-cbor | unaffected 3.1.8 maven | Not specified |
| CNA | FasterXML | Jackson-dataformat-cbor | affected 3.2.0 3.2.4 maven | Not specified |
| CNA | FasterXML | Jackson-dataformat-cbor | unaffected 3.2.4 maven | Not specified |
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| github.com/FasterXML/jackson-dataformats-binary/security/advisories/GHSA... | 36c7be3b-2937-45df-85ea-ca7133ea542c | github.com | |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
Vendor Comments And Credit
Discovery Credit
CNA: apvxlab (AppViewX security research) (en)
CNA: v0xyc0n (www.jpac.at) (en)
Additional Advisory Data
| Source | Time | Event |
|---|---|---|
| CNA | 2026-10-22T21:30:00.000Z | GHSA-cjg7-h3pr-p927 published in FasterXML/jackson-dataformats-binary |
There are currently no legacy QID mappings associated with this CVE.