CVE-2025-5302 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.6) CWE-674 vulnerability in llama-index-core. A fix is available for llama-index-core — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Denial of Service (DOS) in JSONReader in run-llama/llama_index
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.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2025-5302.
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-2025-5302 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
llama-index-coreReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A denial of service vulnerability exists in the JSONReader component of the run-llama/llama_index repository, specifically in version v0.12.37. The vulnerability is caused by uncontrolled recursion when parsing deeply nested JSON files, which can lead to Python hitting its maximum recursion depth limit. This results in high resource consumption and potential crashes of the Python process. The issue is resolved in version 0.12.38.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | llama-index-core | all versions | 0.12.38pip install --upgrade 'llama-index-core==0.12.38' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for llama-index-core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update llama-index-core to 0.12.38 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-5302 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-2025-5302 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2025-5302. 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.
This vulnerability is marked as Important rather than Moderate because it allows the attacker to potentially coordinate the attack through a network required over the whole user base of llama-index package. This DoS attack is easy to reproduce and only requires sending the malicious deeply nested JSON files which…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 for RHEL 8 | ansible-automation-platform-25/lightspeed-chatbot-rhel8:2.5.250924-1 | RHSA-2025:16514 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-5302 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2025-5302 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.