GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Maven
GHSA-2m67-wjpj-xhg9 Jackson Core: Document length constraint bypass in blocking, async, and DataInput parsers
HIGH
Official page ↗
- Ecosystem
- Maven
- Packages
- tools.jackson.core:jackson-core
- Severity
- High
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Weaknesses
- CWE-770
- Reviewed
- 2026-04-04
Affected packages
• Maven tools.jackson.core:jackson-core: >= 3.0.0, < 3.1.1 → fixed in 3.1.1
Description
Summary
Jackson Core 3.x does not consistently enforce `StreamReadConstraints.maxDocumentLength`. Oversized JSON documents can be accepted without a `StreamConstraintsException` in multiple parser entry points, which allows configured size limits to be bypassed and weakens denial-of-service protections.
Details
Three code paths where `maxDocumentLength` is not fully enforced:
1. Blocking parsers skip validation of the final in-memory buffer
Blocking parsers validate only previously processed buffers, not the final in-memory buffer:
• `ReaderBasedJsonParser.java:255`
• `UTF8StreamJsonParser.java:208`
Relevant code:
```java
_currInputProcessed += bufSize;
_streamReadConstraints.validateDocumentLength(_currInputProcessed);
```
This means the check occurs only when a completed buffer is rolled over. If an oversized document is fully contained in the final buffer, parsing can complete without any document-length exception.
2. Async parsers skip validation of the final chunk on end-of-input
Async parsers validate previously processed chunks, but do not validate the final chunk on end-of-input:
• `NonBlockingByteArrayJsonParser.java:49`
• `NonBlockingByteBufferJsonParser.java:57`
• `NonBlockingUtf8JsonParserBase.java:75`
Relevant code:
```java
_currInputProcessed += _origBufferLen;
_streamReadConstraints.validateDocumentLength(_currInputProcessed);
public void endOfInput() {
_endOfInput = true;
}
```
`endOfInput()` marks EOF but does not perform a final `validateDocumentLength(...)` call, so an oversized last chunk is accepted.
3. DataInput parser path does not enforce `maxDocumentLength` at all
• `JsonFactory.java:457`
Relevant construction path:
```java
int firstByte = ByteSourceJsonBootstrapper.skipUTF8BOM(input);
return new UTF8DataInputJsonParser(readCtxt, ioCtxt,
readCtxt.getStreamReadFeatures(_streamReadFeatures),
readCtxt.getFormatReadFeatures(_formatReadFeatures),
input, can, firstByte);
```
`UTF8DataInputJsonParser` does not call `StreamReadConstraints.validateDocumentLength(...)`, so `maxDocumentLength` is effectively disabled for `createParser(..., DataInput)` users.
> Note: This issue appears distinct from the recently published nesting-depth and number-length constraint advisories because it affects document-length enforcement.
PoC
Async path reproducer
```java
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import tools.jackson.core.JsonParser;
import tools.jackson.core.ObjectReadContext;
import tools.jackson.core.StreamReadConstraints;
import tools.jackson.core.async.ByteArrayFeeder;
import tools.jackson.core.json.JsonFactory;
public class Poc {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
JsonFactory factory = JsonFactory.builder()
.streamReadConstraints(StreamReadConstraints.builder()
.maxDocumentLength(10L)
.build())
.build();
byte[] doc = "{\"a\":1,\"b\":2}".getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
try (JsonParser p = factory.createNonBlockingByteArrayParser(ObjectReadContext.empty())) {
ByteArrayFeeder feeder = (ByteArrayFeeder) p.nonBlockingInputFeeder();
feeder.feedInput(doc, 0, doc.length);
feeder.endOfInput();
while (p.nextToken() != null) { }
}
System.out.println("Parsed successfully");
}
}
```
• Expected result: Parsing should fail because the configured document-length limit is 10, while the input is longer than 10 bytes.
• Actual result: The document is accepted and parsing completes.
Blocking path reproducer
```java
import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import tools.jackson.core.JsonParser;
import tools.jackson.core.StreamReadConstraints;
import tools.jackson.core.json.JsonFactory;
public class Poc2 {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
JsonFactory factory = JsonFactory.builder()
.streamReadConstraints(StreamReadConstraints.builder()
.maxDocumentLength(10L)
.build())
.build();
byte[] doc = "{\"a\":1,\"b\":2}".getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
try (JsonParser p = factory.createParser(new ByteArrayInputStream(doc))) {
while (p.nextToken() != null) { }
}
System.out.println("Parsed successfully");
}
}
```
Impact
Applications that rely on `maxDocumentLength` as a safety control for untrusted JSON can accept oversized inputs without error. In network-facing services this weakens an explicit denial-of-service protection and can increase CPU and memory consumption by allowing larger-than-configured request bodies to be processed.
Related
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling weakness