CVE-2025-5472 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) 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 via Uncontrolled Recursive JSON Parsing 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-2025-5472.
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
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
The JSONReader in run-llama/llama_index versions 0.12.28 is vulnerable to a stack overflow due to uncontrolled recursive JSON parsing. This vulnerability allows attackers to trigger a Denial of Service (DoS) by submitting deeply nested JSON structures, leading to a RecursionError and crashing applications. The root cause is the unsafe recursive traversal design and lack of depth validation, which makes the JSONReader susceptible to stack overflow when processing deeply nested JSON. This impacts the availability of services, making them unreliable and disrupting workflows. 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' |
Affected Products
llamaindexllamaindexDetection & 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-2025-5472 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Stop feeding it untrusted input: reject or quarantine files and payloads from unverified sources until you can upgrade, restrict accepted formats to the ones you actually need, and run the parsing or decoding step in a least-privileged sandbox or short-lived worker so a crash or corrupted read cannot reach the rest of the process.
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.
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2025-5472 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-5472 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.