CVE-2023-50246 | jq has heap-buffer-overflow vulnerability in the function decToString in decNumber.c

Exp

jq is a command-line JSON processor. Version 1.7 is vulnerable to heap-based buffer overflow. Version 1.7.1 contains a patch for this issue.

Published: 2023-12-13 Last update: 2025-04-25 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-50246 is rated Exploit Available (57.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.26%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2023-50246

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-50246

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-12-31 0.16% 0.26% +0.10%
2 2025-11-21 0.07% 0.16% +0.09%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.07% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-50246

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.2 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.5 3.6 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-50246

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-50246

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-50246: 1 source package rows (jq); 3 state rows across 3 repos (3.19-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 3, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-50246
debian unimportant CVE-2023-50246 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (jq), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-50246
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-50246
suse medium CVE-2023-50246 severity moderate: SUSE including 11 source package names (jq, jq-1.7.1-1.1, …), 79 product×package rows across 30 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, … (30 product lines)): Known Not Affected 71, Fixed 8. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-50246/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-50246 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (jq), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 8, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-50246

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-50246

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
jqlang jq 1.7 cpe:2.3:a:jqlang:jq:1.7:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
jqlang jq 1.7 cpe:2.3:a:jqlang:jq:1.7:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
jqlang jq 1.7 cpe:2.3:a:jqlang:jq:1.7:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-50246

cvelogic Threat Intelligence