CVE-2023-4043 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in org.eclipse.parsson:project. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for org.eclipse.parsson:project — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Parsson DoS when parsing numbers from untrusted sources
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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-2023-4043.
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-2023-4043 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 378,156 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.eclipse.parsson:project☕org.eclipse.parsson:projectReal-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
In Eclipse Parsson before versions 1.1.4 and 1.0.5, Parsing JSON from untrusted sources can lead malicious actors to exploit the fact that the built-in support for parsing numbers with large scale in Java has a number of edge cases where the input text of a number can lead to much larger processing time than one would expect.
To mitigate the risk, parsson put in place a size limit for the numbers as well as their scale.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.eclipse.parsson:project | ≥ 1.1.0&&< 1.1.4 | 1.1.4org.eclipse.parsson:project:1.1.4 |
| ☕Maven | org.eclipse.parsson:project | all versions | 1.0.5org.eclipse.parsson:project:1.0.5 |
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.eclipse.parsson:project, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.eclipse.parsson:project to 1.1.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-4043 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-2023-4043 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-4043. 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.
Red Hat rates this as an important impact since one needs to process untrusted and if there is no sanitization a Denial of Service (DoS) may happen.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Cryostat 2 on RHEL 8 | cryostat-tech-preview/cryostat-grafana-dashboard-rhel8:2.4.0-4 | RHSA-2024:0530 |
| EAP 8.0.1 | parsson | RHSA-2024:1194 |
| Red Hat build of Quarkus 3.2.10.Final | org.eclipse.parsson/parsson:1.1.5.redhat-00001 | RHSA-2024:0722 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 8.0 for RHEL 8 | eap8-apache-sshd-0:2.12.0-1.redhat_00001.1.el8eap | RHSA-2024:1192 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 8.0 for RHEL 9 | eap8-apache-sshd-0:2.12.0-1.redhat_00001.1.el9eap | RHSA-2024:1193 |
| RHBOAC camel-quarkus 3 (camel-4.0/quarkus-3.2) | parsson | RHSA-2024:0789 |
| RHINT Camel-Springboot 4.0.3 | parsson | RHSA-2024:0793 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-4043 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-4043 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.