Overview
The CVE-2025-57052 vulnerability is an alarming security flaw found in cJSON versions 1.5.0 through 1.7.18. It primarily affects applications that heavily rely on cJSON for processing JSON data. This vulnerability has severe implications, including system compromise and potential data leakage. It’s crucial for cybersecurity professionals, system administrators, and developers to understand the nature of this vulnerability and how to protect systems against it.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-57052
Severity: Critical (9.8)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System compromise and potential data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
cJSON | 1.5.0 to 1.7.18
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability exists in the `decode_array_index_from_pointer` function in cJSON_Utils.c. This function is responsible for decoding the index of an array from the pointer. However, malformed JSON pointer strings containing alphanumeric characters can cause out-of-bounds access. This means that an attacker can craft a malicious JSON pointer that accesses memory beyond the array’s limits, potentially reading sensitive data or causing a crash that could lead to additional exploits.
Conceptual Example Code
Here is a conceptual example of a malformed JSON pointer that might exploit this vulnerability:
POST /vulnerable/endpoint HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{ "json_pointer": "/malformed_array_index/" }In this example, the `malformed_array_index` is a specially crafted alphanumeric string that triggers the out-of-bounds access vulnerability when processed by the vulnerable cJSON versions.
Recommended Mitigation
The most effective mitigation for this vulnerability is to apply the vendor’s patch to update cJSON to a version that fixes this flaw. If applying the vendor’s patch is not immediately feasible, a temporary mitigation could be to use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to detect and block attempts to exploit this vulnerability. However, this should only be a temporary measure until the vendor’s patch can be applied.
