{"id":73433,"date":"2025-09-09T21:28:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T21:28:57","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-09-28T12:50:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T18:50:29","slug":"cve-2025-57052-cjson-out-of-bounds-access-vulnerability-and-mitigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-57052-cjson-out-of-bounds-access-vulnerability-and-mitigation\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-57052: cJSON Out-of-bounds Access Vulnerability and Mitigation<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2022-45134-critical-vulnerability-in-mahara-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"82943\">system compromise and potential<\/a> data leakage. It&#8217;s crucial for cybersecurity professionals, system administrators, and developers to understand the nature of this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-45968-insecure-direct-object-reference-vulnerability-in-system-pdv-v1-0\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"83011\">vulnerability and how to protect systems<\/a> against it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-57052<br \/>\nSeverity: Critical (9.8)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Network<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: None<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-9791-critical-vulnerability-in-tenda-ac20-16-03-08-05-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"85012\">System compromise and potential<\/a> data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-2621700659\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 720px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center; letter-spacing: -0.02em;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 10px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 42px; height: 42px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    Share secrets securely\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 14px; color: #d1d5db;\">\r\n    Ameeba is private infrastructure for communication and sensitive work built on encrypted identity instead of exposed corporate identity systems.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 18px; color: #a1a1aa;\">\r\n    Passwords, credentials, confidential files, screenshots, internal discussions, sensitive AI context, and private coordination should not become exposed across ordinary communication platforms.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #e4e4e7;\">\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Private Spaces for organizations and teams<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, files, and notes<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Sensitive AI work and protected collaboration<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Built for information that cannot leak<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #ffffff;\">\r\n    Our mission is to secure human work alongside AI.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Download Ameeba\r\n    <\/a>\r\n\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Learn More\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>cJSON | 1.5.0 to 1.7.18<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-27214-missing-authentication-for-critical-function-vulnerability-in-unifi-connect-ev-station-pro\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"82104\">vulnerability exists in the `decode_array_index_from_pointer` function<\/a> 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54950-critical-out-of-bounds-access-vulnerability-in-executorch-models-loading\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"81658\">out-of-bounds access<\/a>. This means that an attacker can craft a malicious JSON <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49529-access-of-uninitialized-pointer-vulnerability-in-adobe-illustrator\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"86210\">pointer that accesses<\/a> memory beyond the array&#8217;s limits, potentially reading sensitive data or causing a crash that could lead to additional exploits.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-4080007391\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Here is a conceptual example of a malformed JSON <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49694-null-pointer-dereference-vulnerability-in-microsoft-brokering-file-system\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"82231\">pointer that might exploit this vulnerability<\/a>:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">POST \/vulnerable\/endpoint HTTP\/1.1\nHost: target.example.com\nContent-Type: application\/json\n{ &quot;json_pointer&quot;: &quot;\/malformed_array_index\/&quot; }<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this example, the `malformed_array_index` is a specially crafted alphanumeric string that triggers the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43575-critical-out-of-bounds-write-vulnerability-in-acrobat-reader\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"81032\">out-of-bounds access vulnerability<\/a> when processed by the vulnerable cJSON versions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Recommended Mitigation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The most effective mitigation for this vulnerability is to apply the vendor&#8217;s patch to update <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-51055-insecure-data-storage-vulnerability-in-vedo-suite-version-2024-17\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"81580\">cJSON<\/a> to a version that fixes this flaw. If applying the vendor&#8217;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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-46414-unlimited-pin-attempts-vulnerability-in-api\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"81179\">attempts to exploit this vulnerability<\/a>. However, this should only be a temporary measure until the vendor&#8217;s patch can be applied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8217;s crucial for cybersecurity professionals, system administrators, and developers to understand the nature of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-73433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73433"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79003,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73433\/revisions\/79003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73433"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=73433"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=73433"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=73433"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=73433"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=73433"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=73433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}