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CVE-2026-68914 – Denial of Service (Memory Exhaustion) – Mojolicious (mojo) prior to 9.47

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Summary

CVE-2026-68914 is a denial-of-service vulnerability in the Mojolicious Perl web framework, specifically in the pure-Perl implementation of the Mojo::JSON decoder. The decoder lacked any nesting-depth restriction, allowing an attacker who can supply untrusted JSON to decode_json, from_json, or j to trigger unbounded recursion, exhaust available memory, and crash the process. The issue is rated HIGH severity (CVSS 8.7).

Technical details

  • Root cause: The pure-Perl Mojo::JSON decoder, used when the optional Cpanel::JSON::XS module is not installed, imposed no limit on how deeply nested arrays or objects it would parse.
  • Trigger conditions: An attacker submits a deeply nested JSON payload (arrays/objects nested far beyond normal use) to any application code path that calls decode_json, from_json, or j on untrusted input.
  • Attack vector: Network — any endpoint that accepts and decodes attacker-controlled JSON (e.g., a JSON API built on Mojolicious) is exposed. The XS backend (Cpanel::JSON::XS), when present, already enforced a 512-level nesting limit and is not affected.
  • Impact: Unbounded recursion during parsing leads to memory exhaustion and a process crash, resulting in denial of service. There is no reported confidentiality or integrity impact.

Affected software

  • Mojolicious (mojo on CPAN), versions prior to 9.47, when running the pure-Perl JSON decoder (i.e., Cpanel::JSON::XS is not installed/used).

Severity

  • CVSS Score: 8.7 (High)
  • CVSS v4.0 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

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate: Upgrade Mojolicious to version 9.47 or later, which adds a 512-level nesting limit to the pure-Perl JSON decoder (matching the default used by Cpanel::JSON::XS) and throws a "Nesting too deep" error when exceeded.
  • If immediate patching is not possible:
    • Install and use Cpanel::JSON::XS so the application uses the XS JSON backend, which already enforces a nesting limit.
    • Validate or bound the size/structure of untrusted JSON input before passing it to decode_json, from_json, or j.

References

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