USN-8202-1: jq vulnerabilities

Publication date

23 April 2026

Overview

Several security issues were fixed in jq.


Packages

  • jq - lightweight and flexible command-line JSON processor

Details

It was discovered that jq did not correctly handle certain string
concatenations. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial
of service or execute arbitrary code. This issue was addressed in Ubuntu
16.04 LTS, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu
24.04 LTS and Ubuntu 25.10. (CVE-2026-32316)

It was discovered that jq did not correctly handle recursion in certain
circumstances. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial
of service. (CVE-2026-33947)

It was discovered that jq did not correctly handle improperly terminated
strings. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of
service or execute arbitrary code. This issue was addressed in Ubuntu 16.04
LTS, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
and Ubuntu 25.10. (

It was discovered that jq did not correctly handle certain string
concatenations. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial
of service or execute arbitrary code. This issue was addressed in Ubuntu
16.04 LTS, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu
24.04 LTS and Ubuntu 25.10. (CVE-2026-32316)

It was discovered that jq did not correctly handle recursion in certain
circumstances. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial
of service. (CVE-2026-33947)

It was discovered that jq did not correctly handle improperly terminated
strings. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of
service or execute arbitrary code. This issue was addressed in Ubuntu 16.04
LTS, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
and Ubuntu 25.10. (CVE-2026-33948)

It was discovered that jq did not correctly handle checking certain
variable types. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial
of service or leak sensitive information. This issue was addressed in
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS,
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and Ubuntu 25.10. (CVE-2026-39956)

It was discovered that jq did not correctly handle certain string
formatting. An attacker could possibly use this issue to leak sensitive
information or cause a denial of service. (CVE-2026-39979)

It was discovered that jq used a fixed seed for hash table operations. An
attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service. This
issue was addressed in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04
LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and Ubuntu 25.10. (CVE-2026-40164)


Update instructions

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu Release Package Version
25.10 questing jq –  1.8.1-3ubuntu1.1
libjq-dev –  1.8.1-3ubuntu1.1
libjq1 –  1.8.1-3ubuntu1.1
24.04 LTS noble jq –  1.7.1-3ubuntu0.24.04.2
libjq-dev –  1.7.1-3ubuntu0.24.04.2
libjq1 –  1.7.1-3ubuntu0.24.04.2
22.04 LTS jammy jq –  1.6-2.1ubuntu3.2
libjq-dev –  1.6-2.1ubuntu3.2
libjq1 –  1.6-2.1ubuntu3.2
20.04 LTS focal jq –  1.6-1ubuntu0.20.04.1+esm2  
libjq-dev –  1.6-1ubuntu0.20.04.1+esm2  
libjq1 –  1.6-1ubuntu0.20.04.1+esm2  
18.04 LTS bionic jq –  1.5+dfsg-2ubuntu0.1~esm2  
libjq-dev –  1.5+dfsg-2ubuntu0.1~esm2  
libjq1 –  1.5+dfsg-2ubuntu0.1~esm2  
16.04 LTS xenial jq –  1.5+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1+esm4  
14.04 LTS trusty jq –  1.3-1.1ubuntu1.1+esm4  

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