JSON.decode/1 and JSON.decode!/1 convert each integer literal with erlang:binary_to_integer/1 and do not bound its length. A literal of one million digits decodes successfully but costs 100 to 300 times as much CPU as a string of the same length, so one request body of a few megabytes holds a scheduler for about a second. A literal of more than about 1.29 million digits raises SystemLimitError. Applications generated by phx.new decode request bodies with JSON in Plug.Parsers, before routing and authentication.
This issue affects elixir: from 1.18.0-rc.0 before 1.18.6, from 1.19.0-rc.0 before 1.19.7, and from 1.20.0-rc.0 before 1.20.5.
No advisories yet.
Solution
No solution given by the vendor.
Workaround
Decode untrusted JSON with an integer decoder that rejects long digit runs before conversion: defmodule SafeJSON do def decode!(binary) do case JSON.decode(binary, :ok, integer: &safe_integer/1) do {decoded, :ok, ""} -> decoded _ -> raise ArgumentError, "invalid JSON" end end defp safe_integer(digits) when byte_size(digits) <= 1024, do: String.to_integer(digits) defp safe_integer(_digits), do: raise(ArgumentError, "integer too long") end In Phoenix, pass SafeJSON to Plug.Parsers as json_decoder instead of Phoenix.json_library().
Fri, 30 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Improper Validation of Specified Quantity in Input vulnerability in the Elixir standard library's JSON module allows an unauthenticated attacker who supplies a JSON document to cause a denial of service through CPU and memory exhaustion. JSON.decode/1 and JSON.decode!/1 convert each integer literal with erlang:binary_to_integer/1 and do not bound its length. A literal of one million digits decodes successfully but costs 100 to 300 times as much CPU as a string of the same length, so one request body of a few megabytes holds a scheduler for about a second. A literal of more than about 1.29 million digits raises SystemLimitError. Applications generated by phx.new decode request bodies with JSON in Plug.Parsers, before routing and authentication. This issue affects elixir: from 1.18.0-rc.0 before 1.18.6, from 1.19.0-rc.0 before 1.19.7, and from 1.20.0-rc.0 before 1.20.5. | |
| Title | Unbounded integer parsing in JSON.decode/1 enables CPU and memory exhaustion denial of service in Elixir | |
| First Time appeared |
Elixir-lang
Elixir-lang elixir |
|
| Weaknesses | CWE-1284 | |
| CPEs | cpe:2.3:a:elixir-lang:elixir:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | |
| Vendors & Products |
Elixir-lang
Elixir-lang elixir |
|
| References |
|
|
| Metrics |
cvssV4_0
|
Projects
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Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: EEF
Published:
Updated: 2026-10-30T09:01:54.926Z
Reserved: 2026-10-23T12:45:01.103Z
Link: CVE-2026-115274
No data.
Status : Received
Published: 2026-10-30T09:17:14.103
Modified: 2026-10-30T09:17:14.103
Link: CVE-2026-115274
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment
Updated: 2026-10-30T10:30:11Z