CVE-2026-41256 | jq: Embedded NUL truncates top-level jq programs loaded with -f

Exp

jq is a command-line JSON processor. In 1.8.1 and earlier, Top-level jq programs loaded from a file with -f are truncated at the first embedded NUL byte on current upstream HEAD. A crafted filter file such as . followed by \x00 and arbitrary suffix compiles and executes as only the prefix before the NUL. This leaves jq with a post-CVE-2026-33948 prefix/full-buffer mismatch on the compilation path even though the JSON parser path has already been fixed.

Published: 2026-05-11 Last update: 2026-05-13 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-41256 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.01%). 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-2026-41256

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-41256

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 2026-05-12 — 0.01% —

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-41256

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N 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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-41256

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-41256

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-41256 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (jq), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-41256
suse medium — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-41256/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-41256 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (jq), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 9. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-41256

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-41256

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
jqlang jq <= 1.8.1 cpe:2.3:a:jqlang:jq:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-41256

cvelogic Threat Intelligence