CVE-2026-54911

Summary

ujson.dumps() (or ujson.dump() or ujson.encode()) have a reject_bytes=False option. When set, they may accept malformed or truncated UTF-8 byte sequences, silently rewriting them into different Unicode characters instead of rejecting them. This leads to input validation bypass and data integrity issues.

Details

The expected behavior is that for x being any bytes string, x == ujson.loads(ujson.dumps(x, reject_bytes=False)).encode(errors="surrogatepass") should always either be true or ujson.dumps() will throw an exception. In reality, some strings which should've been errors are silently rewritten as other strings:

• Invalid continuation bytes are replaced with valid ones: b'\xcf\x13' -> b'\xcf\x93'
• Unterminated sequence completes the sequence: b'\xc3' -> b'\xc3\x80'
• ... or leads to reading past the end of string: b'\xf0\x90\x94' -> b"\xf0\x90\x94\x80inxcontrib'"

Impact

An application relying on reject_bytes=False for UTF-8 handling may experience:

• Data integrity issues
• Experience validation bypass if said validation occurs before serialisation

Remediation

The missing/broken UTF-8 validation checks were added/fixed in https://github.com/ultrajson/ultrajson/commit/169eaf36b1116fece5034ee79a7a0ef3f6deedcf. We recommend upgrading to UltraJSON 5.13.0.

Workarounds

Decoding bytes to strings in Python before passing them to ujson.dumps() avoids this issue.

UltraJSON

Security Fix(es):

UltraJSON (aka ujson) through 5.1.0 has a stack-based buffer overflow in Buffer_AppendIndentUnchecked (called from encode). Exploitation can, for example, use a large amount of indentation.(CVE-2021-45958)

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. Affected versions were found to improperly decode certain characters. JSON strings that contain escaped surrogate characters not part of a proper surrogate pair were decoded incorrectly. Besides corrupting strings, this allowed for potential key confusion and value overwriting in dictionaries. All users parsing JSON from untrusted sources are vulnerable. From version 5.4.0, UltraJSON decodes lone surrogates in the same way as the standard library's json module does, preserving them in the parsed output. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.(CVE-2022-31116)

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. In versions prior to 5.4.0 an error occurring while reallocating a buffer for string decoding can cause the buffer to get freed twice. Due to how UltraJSON uses the internal decoder, this double free is impossible to trigger from Python. This issue has been resolved in version 5.4.0 and all users should upgrade to UltraJSON 5.4.0. There are no known workarounds for this issue.(CVE-2022-31117)

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. Prior to 5.12.1, when ujson.dump() writes to a file-like object and the write operation raises an exception, the serialized JSON string object is not decremented, leaking memory. Each failed write operation leaks the full size of the serialized payload. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.12.1.(CVE-2026-44660)

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. Prior to 5.13.0, ujson.dumps() (or ujson.dump() or ujson.encode()) have a reject_bytes=False option. When set, they may accept malformed or truncated UTF-8 byte sequences, silently rewriting them into different Unicode characters instead of rejecting them. This leads to input validation bypass and data integrity issues. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.13.0.(CVE-2026-54911)

UltraJSON

Security Fix(es):

UltraJSON (aka ujson) through 5.1.0 has a stack-based buffer overflow in Buffer_AppendIndentUnchecked (called from encode). Exploitation can, for example, use a large amount of indentation.(CVE-2021-45958)

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. Versions 5.10 through 5.11.0 are vulnerable to buffer overflow or infinite loop through large indent handling. ujson.dumps() crashes the Python interpreter (segmentation fault) when the product of the indent parameter and the nested depth of the input exceeds INT32_MAX. It can also get stuck in an infinite loop if the indent is a large negative number. Both are caused by an integer overflow/underflow whilst calculating how much memory to reserve for indentation. And both can be used to achieve denial of service. To be vulnerable, a service must call ujson.dump()/ujson.dumps()/ujson.encode() whilst giving untrusted users control over the indent parameter and not restrict that indentation to reasonably small non-negative values. A service may also be vulnerable to the infinite loop if it uses a fixed negative indent. An underflow always occurs for any negative indent when the input data is at least one level nested but, for small negative indents, the underflow is usually accidentally rectified by another overflow. This issue has been fixed in version 5.12.0.(CVE-2026-32875)

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. Prior to 5.12.1, when ujson.dump() writes to a file-like object and the write operation raises an exception, the serialized JSON string object is not decremented, leaking memory. Each failed write operation leaks the full size of the serialized payload. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.12.1.(CVE-2026-44660)

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. Prior to 5.13.0, ujson.dumps() (or ujson.dump() or ujson.encode()) have a reject_bytes=False option. When set, they may accept malformed or truncated UTF-8 byte sequences, silently rewriting them into different Unicode characters instead of rejecting them. This leads to input validation bypass and data integrity issues. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.13.0.(CVE-2026-54911)

UltraJSON

Security Fix(es):

UltraJSON (aka ujson) through 5.1.0 has a stack-based buffer overflow in Buffer_AppendIndentUnchecked (called from encode). Exploitation can, for example, use a large amount of indentation.(CVE-2021-45958)

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. Versions 5.10 through 5.11.0 are vulnerable to buffer overflow or infinite loop through large indent handling. ujson.dumps() crashes the Python interpreter (segmentation fault) when the product of the indent parameter and the nested depth of the input exceeds INT32_MAX. It can also get stuck in an infinite loop if the indent is a large negative number. Both are caused by an integer overflow/underflow whilst calculating how much memory to reserve for indentation. And both can be used to achieve denial of service. To be vulnerable, a service must call ujson.dump()/ujson.dumps()/ujson.encode() whilst giving untrusted users control over the indent parameter and not restrict that indentation to reasonably small non-negative values. A service may also be vulnerable to the infinite loop if it uses a fixed negative indent. An underflow always occurs for any negative indent when the input data is at least one level nested but, for small negative indents, the underflow is usually accidentally rectified by another overflow. This issue has been fixed in version 5.12.0.(CVE-2026-32875)

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. Prior to 5.12.1, when ujson.dump() writes to a file-like object and the write operation raises an exception, the serialized JSON string object is not decremented, leaking memory. Each failed write operation leaks the full size of the serialized payload. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.12.1.(CVE-2026-44660)

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. Prior to 5.13.0, ujson.dumps() (or ujson.dump() or ujson.encode()) have a reject_bytes=False option. When set, they may accept malformed or truncated UTF-8 byte sequences, silently rewriting them into different Unicode characters instead of rejecting them. This leads to input validation bypass and data integrity issues. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.13.0.(CVE-2026-54911)

UltraJSON

Security Fix(es):

UltraJSON (aka ujson) through 5.1.0 has a stack-based buffer overflow in Buffer_AppendIndentUnchecked (called from encode). Exploitation can, for example, use a large amount of indentation.(CVE-2021-45958)

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. Versions 5.10 through 5.11.0 are vulnerable to buffer overflow or infinite loop through large indent handling. ujson.dumps() crashes the Python interpreter (segmentation fault) when the product of the indent parameter and the nested depth of the input exceeds INT32_MAX. It can also get stuck in an infinite loop if the indent is a large negative number. Both are caused by an integer overflow/underflow whilst calculating how much memory to reserve for indentation. And both can be used to achieve denial of service. To be vulnerable, a service must call ujson.dump()/ujson.dumps()/ujson.encode() whilst giving untrusted users control over the indent parameter and not restrict that indentation to reasonably small non-negative values. A service may also be vulnerable to the infinite loop if it uses a fixed negative indent. An underflow always occurs for any negative indent when the input data is at least one level nested but, for small negative indents, the underflow is usually accidentally rectified by another overflow. This issue has been fixed in version 5.12.0.(CVE-2026-32875)

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. Prior to 5.12.1, when ujson.dump() writes to a file-like object and the write operation raises an exception, the serialized JSON string object is not decremented, leaking memory. Each failed write operation leaks the full size of the serialized payload. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.12.1.(CVE-2026-44660)

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. Prior to 5.13.0, ujson.dumps() (or ujson.dump() or ujson.encode()) have a reject_bytes=False option. When set, they may accept malformed or truncated UTF-8 byte sequences, silently rewriting them into different Unicode characters instead of rejecting them. This leads to input validation bypass and data integrity issues. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.13.0.(CVE-2026-54911)

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. Prior to 5.13.0, ujson.dumps() (or ujson.dump() or ujson.encode()) have a reject_bytes=False option. When set, they may accept malformed or truncated UTF-8 byte sequences, silently rewriting them into different Unicode characters instead of rejecting them. This leads to input validation bypass and data integrity issues. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.13.0.

UltraJSON is a fast JSON encoder and decoder written in pure C with bindings for Python 3.7+. Prior to 5.13.0, ujson.dumps() (or ujson.dump() or ujson.encode()) have a reject_bytes=False option. When set, they may accept malformed or truncated UTF-8 byte sequences, silently rewriting them into different Unicode characters instead of rejecting them. This leads to input validation bypass and data integrity issues. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.13.0.

Root has patched CVE-2026-54911 in the ujson package for Root:PyPI. Multiple fixed versions available.