CVE-2023-33008 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in org.apache.johnzon:johnzon-mapper. A fix is available for org.apache.johnzon:johnzon-mapper — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Apache Johnzon: Prevent inefficient internal conversion from BigDecimal at large scale
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-33008.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
org.apache.johnzon:johnzon-mapperReal-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
Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in Apache Software Foundation Apache Johnzon.
A malicious attacker can craft up some JSON input that uses large numbers (numbers such as 1e20000000) that Apache Johnzon will deserialize into BigDecimal and maybe use numbers too large which may result in a slow conversion (Denial of service risk). Apache Johnzon 1.2.21 mitigates this by setting a scale limit of 1000 (by default) to the BigDecimal.
This issue affects Apache Johnzon: through 1.2.20.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.johnzon:johnzon-mapper | all versions | 1.2.21org.apache.johnzon:johnzon-mapper:1.2.21 |
Affected Products
johnzonapacheDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.johnzon:johnzon-mapper, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.apache.johnzon:johnzon-mapper to 1.2.21 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-33008 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Do not deserialise data from untrusted sources: where the format allows it, restrict deserialisation to an explicit allowlist of expected types, and prefer a data-only format (JSON, Protobuf) over one that can reconstruct arbitrary objects until you can upgrade.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| AMQ Broker 7.11.2 | apache-johnzon | RHSA-2023:5491 |
| RHINT Camel-Springboot 4.0.0 | apache-johnzon | RHSA-2023:5441 |
| Spring Boot 2.7.17 | apache-johnzon | RHSA-2023:6114 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-33008 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.