Vulnerability in Jqlang Jq

CVE-2026-40612

jq is a command-line JSON processor. In 1.8.1 and earlier, jv_contains recurses into nested arrays/objects with no depth limit. With a sufficiently nested input structure (built programmatically with reduce, since the JSON parser caps at depth 10000), the C stack is exhausted.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (4.3th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 4th percentile — 4.3% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-40612: held from 0.002 to 0.002.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: -0.000

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-40612?
CVE-2026-40612 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Jqlang Jq, classified under Uncontrolled Recursion. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2026-05-11.
How severe is CVE-2026-40612?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.