Search/CVE-2026-40164
● CVE — High

CVE-2026-40164

DiscoveredApr 14, 2026UpdatedOct 26, 2026

jq is a command-line JSON processor. Before commit 0c7d133c3c7e37c00b6d46b658a02244fdd3c784, jq used MurmurHash3 with a hardcoded, publicly visible seed (0x432A9843) for all JSON object hash table operations, which allowed an attacker to precompute key collisions offline. By supplying a crafted JSON object (~100 KB) where all keys hashed to the same bucket, hash table lookups degraded from O(1) to O(n), turning any jq expression into an O(n²) operation and causing significant CPU exhaustion. This affected common jq use cases such as CI/CD pipelines, web services, and data processing scripts, and was far more practical to exploit than existing heap overflow issues since it required only a small payload. This issue has been patched in commit 0c7d133c3c7e37c00b6d46b658a02244fdd3c784.

CVSS v3.1
7.5 HIGH
EPSS
0.37%
probability of exploitation in 30 days
CISA KEV
Not listed
no confirmed exploitation reported
News coverage
1
sources referencing this CVE
Related IOCs
0
seen in the same coverage
EPSS Trend
Aug 16, 2026 → Oct 26, 2026
● 0.00pp
0.37% → 0.37% over 3 tracked changes
CVSS v3.1 Detail
Attack VectorNETWORK
Attack ComplexityLOW
Privileges RequiredNONE
User InteractionNONE
ScopeUNCHANGED
ConfidentialityNONE
IntegrityNONE
AvailabilityHIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Connections
4 relationships
Timeline
disclosure → media coverage
Apr 14, 2026
Disclosure — published as a CVE record. · last revised by NVD Oct 26, 2026
May 21, 2026
ubuntu.com reports: USN-8202-3: jq regression