VulnerabilityPublished 11 Sep 2026

CVE-2026-68497: FasterXML jackson-databind · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Affects FasterXML jackson-databindSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High · fixed in 2.22.2 : patch FasterXML jackson-databind soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 49% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 2.22.2, 2.21.6, 2.18.10 +2

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 11 Sep 2026
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.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade jackson-databind and FasterXML/com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind to 2.22.2, 2.21.6 or 2.18.10; jackson-databind and FasterXML/tools.jackson.core:jackson-databind to 3.2.2 or 3.1.6.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
FasterXMLjackson-databind	Affected >=2.22.0 <2.22.2	Fixed in 2.22.2
FasterXMLjackson-databind	Affected >=2.19.0 <2.21.6	Fixed in 2.21.6
FasterXMLjackson-databind	Affected >=2.0.0 <2.18.10	Fixed in 2.18.10
FasterXMLjackson-databind	Affected >=3.2.0 <3.2.2	Fixed in 3.2.2
FasterXMLjackson-databind	Affected >=3.0.0 <3.1.6	Fixed in 3.1.6
MavenFasterXML/com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind`pkg:maven/FasterXML/com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind`Other threats	Affected >=2.0.0 <2.18.10 >=2.19.0 <2.21.6 >=2.22.0 <2.22.2	Fixed in 2.18.10 2.21.6 2.22.2

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

Patch to a fixed version of jackson-databind at or above 2.18.10, 2.21.6, 2.22.2, 3.1.6, or 3.2.2 as appropriate. These versions include fixes that enforce length limits on the numeric components parsed from JSON strings for these types. Until patched, consider applying input validation or limiting JSON string lengths for these fields as a temporary mitigation. Patch status is confirmed by the presence of fixed version ranges; no vendor advisory content contradicts this.

Description

CVE-2026-68497 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in FasterXML jackson-databind affecting versions >=2.0.0 <2.18.10, >=2.19.0 <2.21.6, >=2.22.0 <2.22.2, >=3.0.0 <3.1.6, and >=3.2.0 <3.2.2. It arises because the library deserializes JSON strings bound to javax.xml.datatype.Duration or XMLGregorianCalendar fields by passing them directly to JDK factory methods that parse numeric components with O(n²) complexity, without enforcing length limits on the string input. This allows an unauthenticated attacker to cause excessive CPU consumption and denial of service by submitting a specially crafted JSON string with very long numeric components. No polymorphic typing or special configuration is required to trigger this issue.

Impact

An unauthenticated attacker can cause a denial of service by submitting a single JSON request containing a string with a very large numeric component for a Duration or XMLGregorianCalendar field. This triggers expensive O(n²) CPU parsing in the JDK's BigInteger/BigDecimal constructors, leading to high CPU consumption and potential service unavailability. There is no impact on confidentiality or integrity reported.

Summary

The jackson-databind library versions specified deserialize JSON string values for javax.xml.datatype.Duration and XMLGregorianCalendar fields by passing the raw string directly to DatatypeFactory.newDuration(value) or newXMLGregorianCalendar(value). These JDK methods parse numeric components into BigInteger or BigDecimal using constructors with O(n²) parsing complexity based on the digit count. Because the JSON string tokens are not subject to jackson-core's maxNumberLength constraint (which only applies to JSON number tokens), there is no effective length limit on these numeric strings. An attacker can submit a JSON string with a very large number of digits (e.g., millions), causing excessive CPU usage and denial of service. The vulnerable code is in CoreXMLDeserializers.java, which registers these deserializers by default without opt-in. The vulnerability is confirmed in multiple jackson-databind version ranges prior to fixed versions 2.18.10, 2.21.6, 2.22.2, 3.1.6, and 3.2.2.

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: High
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
Architecture and Design
Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended. A strong authentication and access control model will help prevent such attacks from occurring in the first place.
Architecture and Design
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either: recognizes the attack and denies that user further access for a given amount of time, or; uniformly throttles all requests in order to make it more difficult to consume resources more quickly than they can again be freed.
Architecture and Design
Ensure that protocols have specific limits of scale placed on them.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
File Upload (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.1.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XML Ping of the Death (opens in a new tab)
Regular Expression Exponential Blowup (opens in a new tab)
Sustained Client Engagement (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).
CWE-1333Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: High
The product uses a regular expression with a worst-case computational complexity that is inefficient and possibly exponential.
Architecture and Design
Use regular expressions that do not support backtracking, e.g. by removing nested quantifiers.
System Configuration
Set backtracking limits in the configuration of the regular expression implementation, such as PHP's pcre.backtrack_limit. Also consider limits on execution time for the process.
Implementation
Do not use regular expressions with untrusted input. If regular expressions must be used, avoid using backtracking in the expression.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
File Upload (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.1.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Regular Expression Exponential Blowup (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 29 Sep 2026, 04:53 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-400, CWE-1333

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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