GitHub Advisoryadvisory · RubyGems
GHSA-q2gm-54r6-8fwm Oj: Use-After-Free in Oj::Parser SAJ Callback via Input Mutation
HIGH
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-54898
- Ecosystem
- RubyGems
- Packages
- oj
- Severity
- High
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-416
- Reviewed
- 2026-06-19
Affected packages
• RubyGems oj: < 3.17.3 → fixed in 3.17.3
Description
Summary
`Oj::Parser#parse` is vulnerable to a heap use-after-free when a SAJ/SAJ2 callback mutates the input JSON string during parsing. The C engine holds a raw `const byte *` pointer into the Ruby string's internal buffer. If a callback (e.g. `hash_start`) resizes the string — for example by calling `String#replace` with a longer value — Ruby reallocates the string buffer and frees the old one. The C parser's pointer is left dangling; the next character read at `parser.c:607` is a use-after-free.
Version
• Software: oj gem
• Affected: all versions with `ext/oj/parser.c`
• Latest tested: 3.17.1 (confirmed present)
Details
`ext/oj/parser.c`, `parser_parse` → `parse`:
```c
static VALUE parser_parse(VALUE self, VALUE json) {
const byte *ptr = (const byte *)StringValuePtr(json); // raw pointer into Ruby string
// ...
parse(p, ptr); // ptr used throughout; any realloc frees the backing buffer
}
```
```c
// parser.c:607
static void parse(ojParser p, const byte *json) {
const byte *b = json;
// ...
for (; '\0' != *b; b++) { // ← UAF: reads freed memory after callback resizes json
```
Ruby's `String#replace` (or `<<`, `gsub!`, etc.) can trigger a reallocation of the string's internal buffer if the new content is larger than the embedded capacity, freeing the old buffer that `ptr` still points to.
ASAN report:
```
==372273==ERROR: AddressSanitizer: heap-use-after-free on address 0x51900008ed81
READ of size 1 at 0x51900008ed81 thread T0
#0 parse /ext/oj/parser.c:607
#1 parser_parse /ext/oj/parser.c:1408
0x51900008ed81 is located 1 bytes inside of 1023-byte region [0x51900008ed80, 0x51900008f17f)
freed by thread T0 here:
#0 free
#1 ruby_sized_xfree (libruby-3.3.so.3.3)
Shadow bytes: [fd]fd fd fd fd fd ... (entire region freed)
```
Reproduce
```ruby
require 'oj'
class Mutator
def initialize(json) = (@json = json; @done = false)
def hash_start(key)
return if @done; @done = true
@json.replace('x' * 1_000_000) # triggers String realloc, frees original buffer
end
def hash_end(key); end
def array_start(key); end
def array_end(key); end
def add_value(value, key); end
end
json = '{"a":1,"pad":"' + ('A' * 1000) + '","z":2}'
parser = Oj::Parser.new(:saj)
parser.handler = Mutator.new(json)
parser.parse(json)
```
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-54898 Oj (Optimized JSON) is a JSON parser and Object marshaller packaged as a Ruby gem. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-416 Use After Free weakness