LlamaIndex affected by a Denial of Service (DOS) in JSONReaderGHSA-7753-xrfw-ch36
HIGHFix: run-llama/llama_index@c032843GHSA-7753-xrfw-ch36 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.
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 GHSA-7753-xrfw-ch36.
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
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 GHSA-7753-xrfw-ch36 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
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…
There is currently no available mitigation for this flaw. However, upgrading the llama_index package, once available, to the version 0.12.38 addresses this issue.Source: Red Hat security advisory for GHSA-7753-xrfw-ch36 (CC BY 4.0)
| 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 GHSA-7753-xrfw-ch36 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.