jsonpath has Arbitrary Code Injection via Unsafe Evaluation of JSON Path Expressions

Impact

Arbitrary Code Injection (Remote Code Execution & XSS):

A critical security vulnerability affects all versions of the jsonpath package. The library relies on the static-eval module to evaluate JSON Path expressions but fails to properly sanitize or sandbox the input.

This allows an attacker to inject arbitrary JavaScript code into the JSON Path expression. When the library evaluates this expression, the malicious code is executed.

• Node.js Environments: This leads to Remote Code Execution (RCE), allowing an attacker to compromise the server.
• Browser Environments: This leads to Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), allowing an attacker to hijack user sessions or exfiltrate data.

Affected Methods:

The vulnerability triggers when untrusted data is passed to any method that evaluates a path, including:

• jsonpath.query
• jsonpath.nodes
• jsonpath.paths
• jsonpath.value
• jsonpath.parent
• jsonpath.apply

Patches

No Patch Available:

Currently, all versions of jsonpath are vulnerable. There is no known patched version of this package that resolves the issue while retaining the current architecture.

Recommendation:

Developers are strongly advised to migrate to a secure alternative (such as jsonpath-plus or similar libraries that do not use eval/static-eval) or strictly validate all JSON Path inputs against a known allowlist.

Workarounds

• Strict Input Validation: Ensure that no user-supplied data is ever passed directly to jsonpath functions.
• Sanitization: If user input is unavoidable, implement a strict parser to reject any JSON Path expressions containing executable JavaScript syntax (e.g., parentheses (), script expressions script:, or function calls).

Resources

• CVE-2026-1615
• Vulnerable Code in handlers.js
• Snyk Advisory (Java/WebJars)
• Snyk Advisory (JS)