Detections
Analytics

AlmaLinux 9.2 [TuxCare] Security Update: jq / jq-devel Multiple Vulnerabilities (ALMALINUX9.2:CLSA-2026:1779123410)

high Nessus Plugin ID 362160

Synopsis

The AlmaLinux host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The AlmaLinux 9.2 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the TuxCare ALMALINUX9.2:CLSA-2026:1779123410 advisory.

 - jq is a command-line JSON processor. In commits before 2f09060afab23fe9390cce7cb860b10416e1bf5f, the jv_parse_sized() API in libjq accepts a counted buffer with an explicit length parameter, but its error- handling path formats the input buffer using %s in jv_string_fmt(), which reads until a NUL terminator is found rather than respecting the caller-supplied length. This means that when malformed JSON is passed in a non-NUL-terminated buffer, the error construction logic performs an out-of-bounds read past the end of the buffer. The vulnerability is reachable by any libjq consumer calling jv_parse_sized() with untrusted input, and depending on memory layout, can result in memory disclosure or process termination. The issue has been patched in commit 2f09060afab23fe9390cce7cb860b10416e1bf5f. (CVE-2026-39979)

 - jq is a command-line JSON processor. Before commit 0c7d133c3c7e37c00b6d46b658a02244fdd3c784, jq used MurmurHash3 with a hardcoded, publicly visible seed (0x432A9843) for all JSON object hash table operations, which allowed an attacker to precompute key collisions offline. By supplying a crafted JSON object (~100 KB) where all keys hashed to the same bucket, hash table lookups degraded from O(1) to O(n), turning any jq expression into an O(n) operation and causing significant CPU exhaustion. This affected common jq use cases such as CI/CD pipelines, web services, and data processing scripts, and was far more practical to exploit than existing heap overflow issues since it required only a small payload. This issue has been patched in commit 0c7d133c3c7e37c00b6d46b658a02244fdd3c784. (CVE-2026-40164)

 - jq is a command-line JSON processor. In 1.8.1 and earlier, jv_contains recurses into nested arrays/objects with no depth limit. With a sufficiently nested input structure (built programmatically with reduce, since the JSON parser caps at depth 10000), the C stack is exhausted. (CVE-2026-40612)

 - jq is a command-line JSON processor. In 1.8.1 and earlier, Top-level jq programs loaded from a file with
 -f are truncated at the first embedded NUL byte on current upstream HEAD. A crafted filter file such as .
 followed by \x00 and arbitrary suffix compiles and executes as only the prefix before the NUL. This leaves jq with a post-CVE-2026-33948 prefix/full-buffer mismatch on the compilation path even though the JSON parser path has already been fixed. (CVE-2026-41256)

 - jq is a command-line JSON processor. In 1.8.1 and earlier, the jq bytecode VM's data stack tracks its allocation size in a signed int. When the stack grows beyond 1 GiB (via deeply nested generator forks), the doubling arithmetic overflows. The wrapped value is passed to realloc and then used for a memmove with attacker-influenced offsets. (CVE-2026-41257)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected packages based on the guidance in TuxCare advisory ALMALINUX9.2:CLSA-2026:1779123410.

See Also

https://cve.tuxcare.com/els/releases/CLSA-2026:1779123410

http://www.nessus.org/u?36d7667a

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 362160

File Name: tuxcare_alma_linux_9.2_CLSA-2026-1779123410.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Published: 10/1/2026

Updated: 10/1/2026

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.8

Percentile: 57.62

Vendor

Vendor Severity: Important

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.4

Temporal Score: 5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-39979

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.5

Temporal Score: 5.9

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.3

Threat Score: 6.4

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:P

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-41257

Vulnerability Information

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, Host/AlmaLinux/release, Host/AlmaLinux/rpm-list, Host/OS/extended-third-party

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 5/18/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 4/13/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-39979, CVE-2026-40164, CVE-2026-40612, CVE-2026-41256, CVE-2026-41257, CVE-2026-43894, CVE-2026-43895, CVE-2026-43896, CVE-2026-44777

CLSA: 2026:1779123410