CVE-2026-40164

jq: Algorithmic complexity DoS via hardcoded MurmurHash3 seed

CVE-2026-40164 is fixed in 5 products on 1 platform, first by jq 1.5+dfsg-2ubuntu0.1~esm3, released April 13, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: High.

High
CVSS
8.2
Important
Exploitation
None reported
No vendor assessment
CISA KEV
Not listed
Not in the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
EPSS
0.0037
30th percentile

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(n²) 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.

Where it's fixed

ProductFixed inFixReleased
Linux
jq · Debian 12.15 (bookworm) 1.6-2.1+deb12u2 DEBIAN-CVE-2026-40164 Apr 14, 2026
jq · Debian 13.5 (trixie) 1.7.1-6+deb13u2 DEBIAN-CVE-2026-40164 Apr 14, 2026
jq · Debian 14 1.8.1-5 DEBIAN-CVE-2026-40164 Apr 14, 2026
jq · Fedora 43 1.8.1-3.fc43 FEDORA-2026-4E57162966 Apr 16, 2026
jq · RHEL 10 1.7.1-8.el10_0.3 RHSA-2026:18040 Apr 13, 2026
jq · RHEL 8 0:1.6-12.el8_10 RHSA-2026:16252 May 15, 2026
jq · RHEL 9 0:1.6-19.el9_8.2 RHSA-2026:19365 May 15, 2026
jq · Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS (bionic) 1.5+dfsg-2ubuntu0.1~esm3 jq 1.5+dfsg-2ubuntu0.1~esm3 Apr 13, 2026
jq · Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal) 1.6-1ubuntu0.20.04.1+esm2 jq 1.6-1ubuntu0.20.04.1+esm2 Apr 13, 2026
jq · Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (jammy) 1.6-2.1ubuntu3.2 jq 1.6-2.1ubuntu3.2 Apr 13, 2026
jq · Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS (noble) 1.7.1-3ubuntu0.24.04.2 jq 1.7.1-3ubuntu0.24.04.2 Apr 13, 2026
jq · Ubuntu 25.10 (questing) 1.8.1-3ubuntu1.1 jq 1.8.1-3ubuntu1.1 Apr 13, 2026
jq · Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS (resolute) 1.8.1-4ubuntu2 jq 1.8.1-4ubuntu2 Apr 13, 2026
jq · almalinux 10 1.7.1-11.el10_2.2 ALSA-2026:19151 May 19, 2026
jq · almalinux 8 1.6-12.el8_10 ALSA-2026:16252 May 12, 2026
jq · almalinux 9 1.6-19.el9_8.2 ALSA-2026:19365 May 19, 2026
jq · amzn 2023 1.8.1-59.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-1815 Jun 8, 2026
jq · ol 10 0:1.7.1-11.el10_1.0.2 ELSA-2026-16692 May 13, 2026
jq · ol 8 0:1.6-12.el8_10 ELSA-2026-16252 May 13, 2026
jq · ol 9 0:1.6-19.el9_7.0.2 ELSA-2026-16693 May 13, 2026
jq · opensuse-leap 16.0 1.7.1-160000.3.1 OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21248-1 Jul 7, 2026
jq · rocky 10 0:1.7.1-11.el10_2.2 RLSA-2026:19151 May 29, 2026
jq · rocky 8 0:1.6-12.el8_10 RLSA-2026:16252 May 14, 2026
jq · rocky 9 0:1.6-19.el9_8.2 RLSA-2026:19365 May 28, 2026
jq · sles 15.6 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1 Sep 21, 2026
jq · sles 15.7 1.7.1-150000.3.25.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4275-1 Sep 21, 2026
jq · sles 16.0 1.7.1-160000.3.1 SUSE-SU-2026:22566-1 Jul 7, 2026
jq-debuginfo · Fedora 43 1.8.1-3.fc43 FEDORA-2026-4E57162966 Apr 16, 2026
jq-debuginfo · amzn 2023 1.8.1-59.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-1815 Jun 8, 2026
jq-debugsource · Fedora 43 1.8.1-3.fc43 FEDORA-2026-4E57162966 Apr 16, 2026
jq-debugsource · amzn 2023 1.8.1-59.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-1815 Jun 8, 2026
jq-devel · Fedora 43 1.8.1-3.fc43 FEDORA-2026-4E57162966 Apr 16, 2026
jq-devel · RHEL 8 0:1.6-12.el8_10 RHSA-2026:16252 May 15, 2026
jq-devel · RHEL 9 0:1.6-19.el9_8.2 RHSA-2026:19365 May 15, 2026
jq-devel · almalinux 10 1.7.1-11.el10_2.2 ALSA-2026:19151 May 19, 2026
jq-devel · almalinux 8 1.6-12.el8_10 ALSA-2026:16252 May 12, 2026
jq-devel · almalinux 9 1.6-19.el9_8.2 ALSA-2026:19365 May 19, 2026
jq-devel · amzn 2023 1.8.1-59.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-1815 Jun 8, 2026
jq-devel · ol 10 0:1.7.1-11.el10_1.0.2 ELSA-2026-16692 May 13, 2026
jq-devel · ol 8 0:1.6-12.el8_10 ELSA-2026-16252 May 13, 2026
jq-devel · ol 9 0:1.6-19.el9_7.0.2 ELSA-2026-16693 May 13, 2026
libjq1 · Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS (bionic) 1.5+dfsg-2ubuntu0.1~esm3 libjq1 1.5+dfsg-2ubuntu0.1~esm3 Apr 13, 2026
libjq1 · Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal) 1.6-1ubuntu0.20.04.1+esm2 libjq1 1.6-1ubuntu0.20.04.1+esm2 Apr 13, 2026
libjq1 · Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (jammy) 1.6-2.1ubuntu3.2 libjq1 1.6-2.1ubuntu3.2 Apr 13, 2026
libjq1 · Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS (noble) 1.7.1-3ubuntu0.24.04.2 libjq1 1.7.1-3ubuntu0.24.04.2 Apr 13, 2026
libjq1 · Ubuntu 25.10 (questing) 1.8.1-3ubuntu1.1 libjq1 1.8.1-3ubuntu1.1 Apr 13, 2026
libjq1 · Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS (resolute) 1.8.1-4ubuntu2 libjq1 1.8.1-4ubuntu2 Apr 13, 2026

Patch Radar data is free to use with attribution. Terms and how to credit it.

Product names, logos and trademarks shown on Patch Radar belong to their respective owners. They are used only to identify the software each security fix applies to and to help readers find their platform. Their use does not imply any affiliation with, or endorsement by, those owners, and Patchblox is not affiliated with any of them.