CVE-2023-1370 — json-smart
HIGHCVE-2023-1370 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-674 vulnerability in net.minidev:json-smart. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for net.minidev:json-smart — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Stack exhaustion in json-smart leads to denial of service when parsing malformed JSON
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-1370.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2023-1370 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
net.minidev:json-smartReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Json-smart is a performance focused, JSON processor lib.
When reaching a ‘[‘ or ‘{‘ character in the JSON input, the code parses an array or an object respectively.
It was discovered that the code does not have any limit to the nesting of such arrays or objects. Since the parsing of nested arrays and objects is done recursively, nesting too many of them can cause a stack exhaustion (stack overflow) and crash the software.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | net.minidev:json-smart | all versions | 2.4.9net.minidev:json-smart:2.4.9 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for net.minidev:json-smart, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update net.minidev:json-smart to 2.4.9 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-1370 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2023-1370 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-1370. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| CEQ 2.13.2-2 | json-smart | RHSA-2023:3179 |
| CEQ 2.7.1-1 | json-smart | RHSA-2023:3193 |
| OCP-Tools-4.12-RHEL-8 | jenkins-2-plugins-0:4.12.1686649756-1.el8 | RHSA-2023:3610 |
| OCP-Tools-4.13-RHEL-8 | jenkins-0:2.401.1.1686680404-3.el8 | RHSA-2023:3622 |
| OpenShift Developer Tools and Services for OCP 4.11 | jenkins-2-plugins-0:4.11.1686831822-1.el8 | RHSA-2023:3663 |
| Red Hat AMQ Clients | json-smart | RHSA-2023:7697 |
| Red Hat AMQ Streams 2.4.0 | see advisory | RHSA-2023:3223 |
| Red Hat AMQ Streams 2.7.0 | see advisory | RHSA-2024:3527 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-1370 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-1370 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.