CVE-2026-89425
jackson-core: UTF8DataInputJsonParser._reportInvalidToken() does not honor maxErrorTokenLength, allowing unbounded StringBuilder growth
Description
UTF8DataInputJsonParser._reportInvalidToken() in FasterXML jackson-core builds the offending-token text for its error message by appending Java identifier characters to a StringBuilder in a loop that has no upper bound. Unlike the three sibling parser implementations, including UTF8StreamJsonParser, it never consults ErrorReportConfiguration.getMaxErrorTokenLength() (default 256). A malformed token supplied to a parser created through JsonFactory.createParser(DataInput) is therefore accumulated in full. No StreamReadConstraints setting mitigates this: maxDocumentLength cannot be applied to DataInput sources at all, and maxStringLength does not cover this path because the accumulation bypasses ReadConstrainedTextBuffer. The reporter measured a 20,000,109-character exception message from a 20-million-character malformed token on the DataInput path, against 367 characters for identical input on the InputStream path. Scaling the payload drives the StringBuilder, which also incurs byte-to-char expansion and internal array doubling, to many times the raw payload size and can trigger OutOfMemoryError for the whole JVM. UTF8DataInputJsonParser was introduced in 2.8.0 together with createParser(DataInput); releases before 2.8.0 do not contain the affected class.
CVSS Vector Breakdown
AV:NAttack VectorAC:LAttack ComplexityPR:NPrivileges RequiredUI:NUser InteractionS:UScopeC:NConfidentialityI:NIntegrityA:HAvailabilityWeaknesses
Affected Products
Exploitability
Attack Graph
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MITRE ATT&CK
1 techniqueReferences
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