What is CVE-2014-4616?

CVE-2014-4616 is a medium-severity vulnerability in openSUSE Project, classified under Improper Validation of Array Index. CVSS score: 5.9/10. Published 2017-08-24.

How severe is CVE-2014-4616?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.9 out of 10.

Is CVE-2014-4616 known to be exploited?

4 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Vulnerability in openSUSE Project

CVE-2014-4616

Array index error in the scanstring function in the _json module in Python 2.7 through 3.5 and simplejson before 2.6.1 allows context-dependent attackers to read arbitrary process memory via a negative index value in the idx argument to the raw_decode function.

Published 2017-08-24 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.9 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.078 (94.7th percentile), scored 2026-10-22.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 95th percentile — 94.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.081 · newest: 0.078 · change: -0.003

Affected products

openSUSE Project — versions 12.3
Python
Simplejson Project
openSUSE — versions 13.1

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-129 — Improper Validation of Array Index

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

hackerone.com/reports/12297 (Exploit, Patch, Third Party Advisory)
bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi (Mailing List, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)
rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1064.html (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/68119 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2014-07/msg00015.html (vendor-advisory, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
security.gentoo.org/glsa/201503-10 (vendor-advisory, Patch, VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory)
openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2014/06/24/7 (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
bugs.python.org/issue21529 (Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory)
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi (Patch, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2014-4616?: CVE-2014-4616 is a medium-severity vulnerability in openSUSE Project, classified under Improper Validation of Array Index. CVSS score: 5.9/10. Published 2017-08-24.
How severe is CVE-2014-4616?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.9 out of 10.
Is CVE-2014-4616 known to be exploited?: 4 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.