All vulnerabilities
CVE-2026-54897GHSA-9ppp-w3g4-fh4q

oj: Oj: Use-After-Free in Oj::Doc Iterators via Reentrant Close

ohler55 ojrubygemsLibraries & packages
CVSS
8.7High
ExploitationPublic exploit codeCISA's assessment says proof of concept code is public, assessed 1 Jul 2026. Not in the KEV catalogCISA via CVE List
Exploit odds (EPSS)0.15%Chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 3% of CVEs. Scored 23 Oct 2026FIRST EPSS
Fixed in3.17.3Fixed versionGitHub
Published30 Jun 2026Updated 6 Oct 2026CVE List

What fixes it

  • 3.17.3oj, rubygemsGitHub
  • 3.17.3oj, RubyGemsOSVbundle update oj --conservative # needs 3.17.3 or later

A fixed version on one release line is not the upgrade target for every line. Check your exact version and any vendor backports.

Description

Summary

Oj::Doc iterators (each_value, each_child, each_leaf) are vulnerable to a heap use-after-free. When a Ruby block yielded during iteration calls doc.close or d.close, the document's heap memory is freed while the C iterator is still running. When control returns from the block, the iterator reads from the freed region, producing a use-after-free accessible from pure Ruby.

Version

  • Software: oj gem
  • Affected: all versions with ext/oj/fast.c
  • Latest tested: 3.17.1 (confirmed present)

Details

The iterators in ext/oj/fast.c follow the pattern:

// fast.c:1505 (doc_each_child)
static VALUE doc_each_child(VALUE self, ...) {
    ...
    while (cur != NULL) {
        rb_yield(...);       // ← Ruby block executes here
        cur = cur->next;     // ← cur is now freed if block called close()
    }
}

rb_yield can invoke arbitrary Ruby code, including calling close() on the Doc or any child node, which calls ruby_sized_xfree on the backing buffer. On return, the C code reads cur->next from the freed region. All three iterators are affected.

ASAN report (each_child variant):

==253632==ERROR: AddressSanitizer: heap-use-after-free on address 0x5210000bd080
READ of size 8 at 0x5210000bd080 thread T0
    #0 doc_each_child  /ext/oj/fast.c:1505
0x5210000bd080 is located 896 bytes inside of 4064-byte region [0x5210000bcd00, 0x5210000bdce0)
freed by thread T0 here:
    #0 free
    #1 ruby_sized_xfree  (libruby-3.3.so.3.3)

All three iterators trigger the same freed region (fd shadow bytes):

0x5210000bd080:[fd]fd fd fd fd fd fd fd fd fd fd fd fd fd fd fd

Reproduce

require 'oj'
# each_child
Oj::Doc.open('[1,2]') { |doc| doc.each_child { |d| d.close } }
# each_value
Oj::Doc.open('[1,2]') { |doc| doc.each_value { |v| doc.close } }
# each_leaf
Oj::Doc.open('[1,[2]]') { |doc| doc.each_leaf { |d| d.close } }

Text from GitHub Advisory Database

Affected versions 53

  • oj, rubygems<= 3.17.2GitHub
  • ojaffected: < 3.17.2CVE List
  • oj, RubyGemsfrom first release, fixed in 3.17.3OSV
  • oj, RubyGems0.5OSV
  • oj, RubyGems0.5.1OSV
  • oj, RubyGems0.5.2OSV
  • oj, RubyGems0.6.0OSV
  • oj, RubyGems0.7.0OSV
  • oj, RubyGems0.8.0OSV
  • oj, RubyGems0.9.0OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.0.0OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.0.1OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.0.2OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.0.3OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.0.4OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.0.5OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.0.6OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.1.0OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.1.1OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.2.0OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.2.1OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.2.10OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.2.11OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.2.12OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.2.13OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.2.2OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.2.3OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.2.4OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.2.5OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.2.6OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.2.7OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.2.8OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.2.9OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.3.0OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.3.2OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.3.4OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.3.5OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.3.6OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.3.7OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.4.0OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.4.1OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.4.2OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.4.3OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.4.4OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.4.5OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.4.6OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.4.6a2OSV
  • oj, RubyGems1.4.7OSV
  • oj, RubyGems2.0.0OSV
  • oj, RubyGems2.0.1OSV
  • oj, RubyGems2.0.10OSV
  • oj, RubyGems2.0.11OSV
  • oj, RubyGems2.0.12OSV

References 5