# CVE-2016-4425: Denial of service in n/a

> Attackers can cause a denial of service via crafted JSON data leading to stack consumption and crashes in the Jansson library.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 17 May 2016
- **Updated:** 4 Dec 2025
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2016-4425, DLA-471-1, DSA-3577-1, GHSA-rf62-m3fm-w623, MGASA-2016-0198, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-4425

## What is CVE-2016-4425?

CVE-2016-4425 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 17 May 2016. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Jansson 2.7 and earlier allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (deep recursion, stack consumption, and crash) via crafted JSON data.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation), CWE-674 (Uncontrolled Recursion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-4425?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Jansson Project Jansson.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-4425?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2016-4425 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2016-4425 exists.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2020-36325](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-36325/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2013-6401](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6401/): Denial of service in n/a (medium 5.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-4425 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-4425 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 17 May 2016. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2016-4425 exists.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-4425/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-4425/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-4425
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-4425
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-4425

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-4425/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.