CVE-2016-4303

critical
Published 2016-09-26 · Modified 2026-05-06
CVSS v3
9.8
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS v2
7.5
VIR risk
9.8

Description

The parse_string function in cjson.c in the cJSON library mishandles UTF8/16 strings, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) or execute arbitrary code via a non-hex character in a JSON string, which triggers a heap-based buffer overflow.

Predictions

Exploit likelihood
97%
Patch ETA

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: debian — https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-4303

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: cret@cert.org — https://github.com/esnet/iperf/commit/91f2fa59e8ed80dfbf400add0164ee0e508e412a

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: cret@cert.org — http://software.es.net/iperf/news.html#security-issue-iperf-3-1-3-iperf-3-0-12-released

OS impact

OSVersionStatusFixed in
debian debianbookwormfixed3.1.3-1
debian debianbullseyefixed3.1.3-1
debian debianforkyfixed3.1.3-1
debian debiansidfixed3.1.3-1
debian debiantrixiefixed3.1.3-1
debian debian8.0affected
suse suse42.1affected
suse suse13.2affected

Application impact

VendorProductVersionsFixed
esiperf3{"startIncluding":"3.0","endExcluding":"3.0.12"}3.0.12
suse novellsuse_package_hub_for_suse_linux_enterprise12

References

CWEs

CWE-120

Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.