CVE-2025-57052: cJSON · Improper Validation of Array Index
Source CVE Database V5
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 9.8 Critical.
Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 15:59 UTC
- EPSS
- 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 54% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 3 Sep 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors
A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.
What to do
AI-suggested
- Immediately inventory all software and devices using cJSON versions 1.5.0 through 1.7.18 to identify vulnerable instances.
- Monitor official cJSON repositories and security advisories for patches addressing CVE-2025-57052 and apply updates promptly once released.
- Until patches are available, implement strict input validation to reject malformed JSON pointer strings, especially those containing suspicious alphanumeric sequences that could trigger out-of-bounds access.
- Employ sandboxing or isolation techniques for JSON parsing components to limit the impact of potential exploitation.
- Enhance logging and monitoring to detect anomalous JSON pointer usage or unexpected memory access patterns indicative of exploitation attempts.
- For embedded and IoT devices, coordinate with vendors to obtain firmware updates or mitigations.
- Conduct penetration testing and code reviews focused on JSON processing to uncover similar vulnerabilities.
- Educate development teams on secure coding practices related to memory management and input validation in C-based libraries.
- Consider deploying runtime application self-protection (RASP) or memory protection mechanisms such as AddressSanitizer in development and testing environments to detect out-of-bounds accesses early.
- Prepare incident response plans to quickly contain and remediate any exploitation events related to this vulnerability.
Description
cJSON 1.5.0 through 1.7.18 allows out-of-bounds access via the decode_array_index_from_pointer function in cJSON_Utils.c, allowing remote attackers to bypass array bounds checking and access restricted data via malformed JSON pointer strings containing alphanumeric characters.