Sign In

CVE-2026-44660

ADVISORY - github

Summary

Summary

When ujson.dump() writes to a file-like object and the write operation raises an exception, the serialized JSON string object is not decremented, leaking memory. Each failed write operation leaks the full size of the serialized payload.

Code that uses ujson.dumps() rather than ujson.dump() or only JSON load/decode methods is unaffected.

Details

Vulnerability Location:

  • src/ujson/python/objToJSON.c:913 - objToJSONFile() function start
  • src/ujson/python/objToJSON.c:931 - Error return on write failure
  • src/ujson/python/objToJSON.c:942 - Early return without cleanup

Root Cause:

The objToJSONFile() function allocates a Python string object via ujson_dumps_internal(), calls the file's write() method, and returns early if write() raises an exception—but never calls Py_DECREF(string) on the early exit path.

PoC

import gc, tracemalloc, ujson

class BadFile:
    def write(self, s):
        raise RuntimeError("boom")

obj = {"x": "A" * 200000}

def run():
    try:
        ujson.dump(obj, BadFile())
    except RuntimeError:
        pass

run()
tracemalloc.start()
gc.collect()
base = tracemalloc.get_traced_memory()[0]

for i in range(5):
    run()
    gc.collect()
    cur = tracemalloc.get_traced_memory()[0]
    print(i, cur - base)

Impact

Any application that serializes data through ujson.dump() to an attacker-influenced file-like object that can fail can be driven into linear memory growth. An attacker can quickly use up all the memory of say a web server that sends JSON responses using ujson.dump() by repeatedly making requests then closing the connection mid response.

Remediation

The missing dec-refs were added in 82af1d0ac01d09aa40c887b460d44b9d9f4bccd9. We recommend upgrading to UltraJSON 5.12.1.

Workarounds

Replacing ujson.dump(obj, file) with file.write(ujson.dumps(obj)) is equivalent (contrary to popular misconception, there are no streaming benefits to using ujson.dump()) and will avoid the memory leak.

EPSS Score⁠: 0.0004 (0.123)

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)

ADVISORY - nist

CWE-401⁠

Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime

ADVISORY - github

CWE-401⁠

Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime

Impacted images

Advisories

GitHub

CREATED

UPDATED

ADVISORY IDGHSA-c38f-wx89-p2xg⁠
EXPLOITABILITY SCORE

-

EXPLOITS FOUND
-
COMMON WEAKNESS ENUMERATION (CWE)
CWE-401⁠

CVSS SCORE

8.7high
PackageTypeOS NameOS VersionAffected RangesFix Versions
ujsonpypi--<=5.12.05.12.1

CVSS:4 Severity and metrics

The CVSS metrics represent different qualitative aspects of a vulnerability that impact the overall score, as defined by the CVSS Specification⁠.

The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack, but the attack is limited at the protocol level to a logically adjacent topology. This can mean an attack must be launched from the same shared physical (e.g., Bluetooth or IEEE 802.11) or logical (e.g., local IP subnet) network, or from within a secure or otherwise limited administrative domain (e.g., MPLS, secure VPN to an administrative network zone). One example of an Adjacent attack would be an ARP (IPv4) or neighbor discovery (IPv6) flood leading to a denial of service on the local LAN segment (e.g., CVE-2013-6014).

Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success when attacking the vulnerable component.

The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.

The attacker is unauthenticated prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files of the vulnerable system to carry out an attack.

The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker. Examples include: a remote attacker is able to send packets to a target system a locally authenticated attacker executes code to elevate privileges.

There is no loss of confidentiality within the Vulnerable System.

There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

There is no loss of integrity within the Vulnerable System.

There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

There is a total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the Vulnerable System; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the Vulnerable System (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

NIST

CREATED

UPDATED

ADVISORY IDCVE-2026-44660⁠
EXPLOITABILITY SCORE

-

EXPLOITS FOUND
-
COMMON WEAKNESS ENUMERATION (CWE)
CWE-401⁠

CVSS SCORE

8.7high

Debian

CREATED

UPDATED

ADVISORY IDCVE-2026-44660⁠
EXPLOITABILITY SCORE

-

EXPLOITS FOUND
-
COMMON WEAKNESS ENUMERATION (CWE)-
RATING UNAVAILABLE FROM ADVISORY

Ubuntu

CREATED

UPDATED

ADVISORY IDCVE-2026-44660⁠
EXPLOITABILITY SCORE

-

EXPLOITS FOUND
-
COMMON WEAKNESS ENUMERATION (CWE)-

CVSS SCORE

N/Amedium

Chainguard

CREATED

UPDATED

ADVISORY ID

CGA-mr59-cwrg-jqx9

EXPLOITABILITY SCORE

-

EXPLOITS FOUND
-
COMMON WEAKNESS ENUMERATION (CWE)-
RATING UNAVAILABLE FROM ADVISORY