CVE-2023-1436 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) remote code execution vulnerability in org.codehaus.jettison:jettison. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for org.codehaus.jettison:jettison — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Infinite recursion in Jettison leads to denial of service when creating a crafted JSONArray
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-2023-1436.
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-2023-1436 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 378,567 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
org.codehaus.jettison:jettisonReal-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
An infinite recursion is triggered in Jettison when constructing a JSONArray from a Collection that contains a self-reference in one of its elements. This leads to a StackOverflowError exception being thrown.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.codehaus.jettison:jettison | all versions | 1.5.4org.codehaus.jettison:jettison:1.5.4 |
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 org.codehaus.jettison:jettison, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.codehaus.jettison:jettison to 1.5.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-1436 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-2023-1436 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-1436. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Migration Toolkit for Runtimes 1 on RHEL 8 | mtr/mtr-web-container-rhel8:1.2-9 | RHSA-2023:7670 |
| MTA-6.2-RHEL-8 | mta/mta-rhel8-operator:6.2.2-3 | RHSA-2024:1027 |
| OCP-Tools-4.13-RHEL-8 | jenkins-2-plugins-0:4.13.1686680473-1.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 JBoss Enterprise Application Platform | org.codehaus.jettison/jettison:1.5.4.redhat-00002 | RHSA-2023:4509 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.4 for RHEL 8 | eap7-jettison-0:1.5.4-1.redhat_00002.1.el8eap | RHSA-2023:4506 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.4 for RHEL 9 | eap7-jettison-0:1.5.4-1.redhat_00002.1.el9eap | RHSA-2023:4507 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.4 on RHEL 7 | eap7-jettison-0:1.5.4-1.redhat_00002.1.el7eap | RHSA-2023:4505 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-1436 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-1436 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.