CVE-2024-53848 check-jsonschema default caching for remote schemas allows for cache confusion

High 7.1 Published Updated

Attackers can poison the schema cache to bypass validation checks, allowing malicious data to pass validation in check-jsonschema.

Exploited in the wild
Not known
Login needed
Not needed
Attackable
Local or same network only
Victim action needed
Not needed
Fix
Available

What is CVE-2024-53848?

CVE-2024-53848 is a high-severity vulnerability in python-jsonschema check-jsonschema, published on 29 Nov 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

check-jsonschema is a CLI and set of pre-commit hooks for jsonschema validation. The default cache strategy uses the basename of a remote schema as the name of the file in the cache, e.g. `https://example.org/schema.json` will be stored as `schema.json`. This naming allows for conflicts. If an attacker can get a user to run `check-jsonschema` against a malicious schema URL, e.g., `https://example.evil.org/schema.json`, they can insert their own schema into the cache and it will be picked up and used instead of the appropriate schema. Such a cache confusion attack could be used to allow data to pass validation which should have been rejected. This issue has been patched in version 0.30.0. All users are advised to upgrade. A few workarounds exist: 1. Users can use `--no-cache` to disable caching. 2. Users can use `--cache-filename` to select filenames for use in the cache, or to ensure that other usages do not overwrite the cached schema. (Note: this flag is being deprecated as part of the remediation effort.) 3. Users can explicitly download the schema before use as a local file, as in `curl -LOs https://example.org/schema.json; check-jsonschema --schemafile ./schema.json`

Weakness: CWE-349

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-53848?

3 open source packages ship an affected version, including check-jsonschema.

PackageAffectedFixed in
check-jsonschema PyPIAll versions0.30.0
check-jsonschema PyPIAll versions0.30.0
check-jsonschema PyPIAll versions0.30.0

How do I fix CVE-2024-53848?

Upgrade check-jsonschema to 0.30.0 or later.

Is CVE-2024-53848 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-53848 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as GHSA-q6mv-284r-mp36, PYSEC-2026-1245.

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