CVE-2026-71847

Ruby JSON: JSON::ResumableParser#partial_value dereferences a freed input buffer and crashes on truncated duplicate-key streams

HIGH
8.7
CVSS Score
Published: August 7, 2026 at 06:31 PM UTC
Updated: October 24, 2026 at 03:10 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorJSON

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Severity
HIGH8.7
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.4%
SSVC
PoC

Description

Ruby JSON is a JSON implementation for Ruby. From 2.20.0 until 2.21.2, Ruby's JSON native C extension clears the consumed JSON::ResumableParser input buffer but leaves state.start, state.cursor, and state.end pointing into released storage. When partial_value reconstructs an incomplete object containing duplicate keys, the duplicate-key warning path calls cursor_position, which dereferences those stale pointers. This results in a heap-use-after-free and can terminate the Ruby process. An attacker who can supply JSON stream data to an application using JSON::ResumableParser may cause process termination when the application calls partial_value on incomplete attacker-controlled input containing duplicate object keys. This issue has been fixed in version 2.21.2.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

>= 2.20.0, < 2.21.2
Affected range stops below 2.21.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

References (1)

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCPoCAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

8.7HIGHGitHub_M
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusAWAITING ANALYSIS
CWE
CWE-416

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