CVE-2026-106554 PUBLISHED

jackson-dataformat-cbor: quadratic-time TagList growth on unbounded stacked tags (CPU/GC DoS, PoC)

Assigner: HeroDevs
Reserved: 06.10.2026 Published: 04.11.2026 Updated: 04.11.2026

One CBOR-parsing issue in jackson-dataformats-binary's CBOR module: an unbounded run of CBOR tags drives quadratic-time TagList growth (CPU/GC-exhaustion DoS, PoC-proven).

PoC executed against com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat:jackson-dataformat-cbor:2.18.2; present in current 2.x and 3.x (tools.jackson.dataformat.cbor) HEAD. Distinct from the Avro and Smile/Protobuf advisories for this repo.

Quadratic CPU/GC DoS from an unbounded chain of CBOR tags (PoC-proven). File: cbor/src/main/java/.../cbor/CBORParser.java (tag handling -> TagList).

CBOR permits a data item to be preceded by any number of semantic tags. The CBOR parser accumulates them in a TagList whose backing array grows by a fixed increment (+8), not by doubling, and re-scans/copies on each growth. An attacker sends a value preceded by a long run of tag bytes; the fixed-increment growth makes accumulating N tags O(N^2) in time (plus GC pressure), with no cap on the number of stacked tags.

PoC (executed, JDK 17): feeding a CBOR stream consisting of a long run of tag bytes (e.g. tag 0xC0+) before a trivial value forces quadratic CPU/GC; parse time grows super-linearly with the tag count, pinning a request thread with no configurable limit.

Impact. Algorithmic-complexity denial of service (CWE-407): a modest input of stacked tags consumes quadratic CPU/GC, pinning a request thread; concurrent requests exhaust the pool.

Fix. Grow TagList by doubling and/or cap the number of stacked tags (StreamReadConstraints-style).

Product Status

Vendor FasterXML
Product jackson-dataformat-cbor
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 2.15.0 to 2.18.12 (excl.)
  • Version 2.18.12 is unaffected
  • affected from 2.19.0 to 2.21.8 (excl.)
  • Version 2.21.8 is unaffected
  • affected from 2.22.0 to 2.22.4 (excl.)
  • Version 2.22.4 is unaffected
Vendor FasterXML
Product jackson-dataformat-cbor
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 3.0.0 to 3.1.8 (excl.)
  • Version 3.1.8 is unaffected
  • affected from 3.2.0 to 3.2.4 (excl.)
  • Version 3.2.4 is unaffected

Credits

  • apvxlab (AppViewX security research) reporter
  • v0xyc0n (www.jpac.at) reporter

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-407 Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity CWE