Overview
The vulnerability CVE-2024-21907 is a serious cybersecurity concern, impacting the Newtonsoft.Json library before version 13.0.1. This vulnerability arises from a mishandling of exceptional conditions, which can potentially lead to system compromise or data leakage. It is crucial for entities using the affected versions of Newtonsoft.Json to understand this vulnerability and take appropriate measures to mitigate its impact.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2024-21907
Severity: High – CVSS Score of 7.5
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Denial of service, potential system compromise, and data leakage
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Product | Affected Versions
Newtonsoft.Json | Before 13.0.1
How the Exploit Works
The exploit works by passing specially crafted data to the JsonConvert.DeserializeObject method within the Newtonsoft.Json library. This action may trigger a StackOverflow exception, leading to a denial of service. Under certain circumstances, an unauthenticated and remote attacker may be able to induce this denial of service condition, potentially compromising the system and leading to data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
Consider the following conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. This is a sample HTTP POST request with a malicious JSON payload:
POST /vulnerable/endpoint HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{ "malicious_payload": "StackOverflow inducing data" }
In this example, the “malicious_payload” is crafted to induce a StackOverflow exception when parsed by the JsonConvert.DeserializeObject method in the vulnerable version of the Newtonsoft.Json library.
Recommended Mitigation
Users of affected versions of Newtonsoft.Json are advised to upgrade to version 13.0.1 or later. In situations where an immediate upgrade is not possible, the use of a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can be employed as temporary mitigation.

