Description: An attacker sends an extremely large JSON payload to the application endpoint that processes JSON. The nlohmann/json library attempts to parse this large payload, consuming excessive CPU and memory resources. This can lead to the application becoming slow, unresponsive, or crashing, effectively denying service to legitimate users.
Impact: Application unavailability, service degradation, resource exhaustion, potential financial loss due to downtime.
JSON Component Affected: Parsing module, specifically memory allocation and CPU usage during parsing.
Risk Severity: High
Mitigation Strategies:
* Implement input size limits for incoming JSON payloads at the application level.
* Configure resource limits (CPU, memory) for the application.
* Consider asynchronous or streaming parsing for large JSON data.
* Implement rate limiting to restrict requests from a single source.
Description: An attacker crafts a JSON payload with extremely deep nesting levels (e.g., nested arrays or objects within objects). When nlohmann/json parses this deeply nested structure, it can lead to stack overflow or excessive recursion, potentially crashing the application or causing significant performance degradation.
Impact: Application crash, service unavailability, performance degradation, potential for exploitation of stack overflow vulnerabilities.
JSON Component Affected: Parsing module, specifically recursion depth during parsing of nested structures.
Risk Severity: High
Mitigation Strategies:
* Implement limits on the maximum nesting depth allowed in JSON payloads.
* Test application resilience to deeply nested JSON.
* Consider configuring nlohmann/json parsing options to limit recursion depth (if available).
* Implement timeouts for JSON parsing operations.
Description: The nlohmann/json library, like any software, might contain undiscovered vulnerabilities (e.g., parsing bugs, memory safety issues, logic errors) that could be exploited by attackers. Exploitation could range from DoS to remote code execution depending on the nature of the vulnerability.
Impact: Wide range of impacts depending on the vulnerability, potentially including remote code execution, DoS, information disclosure, data corruption, or complete system compromise.
JSON Component Affected: Core library code, potentially affecting parsing, data handling, or other modules depending on the specific vulnerability.
Risk Severity: Varies (can be Critical to High depending on the vulnerability)
Mitigation Strategies:
* Keep nlohmann/json library updated to the latest stable version and apply security patches promptly.
* Monitor security advisories and vulnerability databases related to nlohmann/json.
* Consider static analysis tools or fuzzing to identify potential vulnerabilities.
* Follow secure coding practices when using nlohmann/json.
* Incorporate dependency scanning into the development pipeline.