# CVE-2026-59168: Dasel: Unbounded recursion in JSON and XML readers causes unrecoverable stack-overflow DoS

> Attackers can crash the application by supplying deeply nested JSON or XML input, causing an unrecoverable stack overflow in the Dasel library.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 21 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 21 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-59168, GHSA-cqxr-jxr2-85pq, GO-2026-6549, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-59168

## What is CVE-2026-59168?

CVE-2026-59168 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in TomWright dasel, published on 21 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Dasel is a command-line tool and library for querying, modifying, and transforming data structures. From 3.0.0 until 3.11.1, parsing/json/json_reader.go decodeValue, decodeObject, and decodeArray, and parsing/xml/reader.go parseElement, recurse once per input nesting level without a depth guard. Deeply nested attacker-controlled JSON or XML supplied through parsing.Format(...).NewReader(...).Read(data), the command-line interface, or the parse selector function can exhaust the Go goroutine stack and raise an unrecoverable fatal error that terminates the entire process. The XML input-size limit does not prevent depth exhaustion, and defer or recover cannot intercept the failure. This issue is fixed in version 3.11.1.

Weakness: CWE-674 (Uncontrolled Recursion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-59168?

5 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3, github.com/tomwright/dasel and github.com/tomwright/dasel/v2.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3` | Go | From 3.0.0 | 3.11.1 |
| `github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3` | Go | From 3.0.0 | 3.11.1 |
| `github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3` | Go | From 3.0.0 | 3.11.1 |
| `github.com/tomwright/dasel` | Go | All versions | None |
| `github.com/tomwright/dasel/v2` | Go | All versions | None |

## How do I fix CVE-2026-59168?

Upgrade github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3 to 3.11.1 or later.

## Is CVE-2026-59168 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-59168 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-59168 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-59168 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in TomWright dasel, published on 21 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-59168 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3 (Go): affected from 3.0.0; fixed in 3.11.1
- github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3 (Go): affected from 3.0.0; fixed in 3.11.1
- github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3 (Go): affected from 3.0.0; fixed in 3.11.1
- github.com/tomwright/dasel (Go): affected all versions; no fix listed
- github.com/tomwright/dasel/v2 (Go): affected all versions; no fix listed

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-2026-59168/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-59168/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-59168
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-59168
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-59168

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-59168/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.