Multiple vulnerabilities in the jq JSON processor, including improper string handling and type checking, can lead to denial of service, arbitrary code execution, or information disclosure. The most severe is CVE-2026-32316 with a CVSS score of 8.2 (HIGH), affecting jqlang jq versions up to and including 1.8.1. Patches have been issued by Ubuntu for its LTS releases, but specific fixed upstream version information is only provided for CVE-2026-33948, which is resolved in versions from 2026-04-12 onward.
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)