==========================================================================
Ubuntu Security Notice USN-8202-1
April 23, 2026

jq vulnerabilities
==========================================================================

A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

- Ubuntu 25.10
- Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
- Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
- Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
- Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
- Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
- Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Summary:

Several security issues were fixed in jq.

Software Description:
- 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. (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:

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

Ubuntu 25.10
  jq                              1.8.1-3ubuntu1.1
  libjq-dev                       1.8.1-3ubuntu1.1
  libjq1                          1.8.1-3ubuntu1.1

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
  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

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
  jq                              1.6-2.1ubuntu3.2
  libjq-dev                       1.6-2.1ubuntu3.2
  libjq1                          1.6-2.1ubuntu3.2

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
  jq                              1.6-1ubuntu0.20.04.1+esm2
                                  Available with Ubuntu Pro
  libjq-dev                       1.6-1ubuntu0.20.04.1+esm2
                                  Available with Ubuntu Pro
  libjq1                          1.6-1ubuntu0.20.04.1+esm2
                                  Available with Ubuntu Pro

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
  jq                              1.5+dfsg-2ubuntu0.1~esm2
                                  Available with Ubuntu Pro
  libjq-dev                       1.5+dfsg-2ubuntu0.1~esm2
                                  Available with Ubuntu Pro
  libjq1                          1.5+dfsg-2ubuntu0.1~esm2
                                  Available with Ubuntu Pro

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
  jq                              1.5+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1+esm4
                                  Available with Ubuntu Pro

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
  jq                              1.3-1.1ubuntu1.1+esm4
                                  Available with Ubuntu Pro

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

References:
  https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8202-1
  CVE-2026-32316, CVE-2026-33947, CVE-2026-33948, CVE-2026-39956,
  CVE-2026-39979, CVE-2026-40164

Package Information:
  https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/jq/1.8.1-3ubuntu1.1
  https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/jq/1.7.1-3ubuntu0.24.04.2
  https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/jq/1.6-2.1ubuntu3.2