Description

Uncontrolled Recursion vulnerability in Samsung Open Source rlottie allows Serialized Data with Nested Payloads. This issue affects rlottie: before 8de0d9e6ca80ffef654965505981727b9fa06a51.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "5.5",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-31T12:17:58.350Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-31T12:17:58.350Z",
  "executiveSummary": "The Samsung Open Source rlottie library is susceptible to an uncontrolled recursion vulnerability, which stems from improper handling of nested payloads within serialized data.\nThis vulnerability constitutes a security flaw that can be exploited by an attacker to induce a stack overflow condition by supplying specially crafted, deeply nested input.\nThe primary impact of this vulnerability is a Denial of Service (DoS) resulting from an application crash, as the recursive descent exceeds the allocated stack memory limits.\nThe issue affects rlottie versions prior to commit 8de0d9e6ca80ffef654965505981727b9fa06a51.\nExploitation requires no specific authentication or elevated privileges, provided the attacker can supply input to a function or interface that processes the malformed serialized data.\nThe risk implication is significant for applications relying on rlottie for rendering complex or untrusted animation data, potentially leading to instability or service interruption in environments where the library is integrated.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability resides within the parsing logic of the rlottie library, specifically in modules responsible for deserializing or processing hierarchical or nested data structures.\nThe root cause is a lack of depth checking or termination conditions during the recursive traversal of the input data. When the library attempts to parse a payload containing an excessive number of nested layers, the function call stack continues to grow with each successive recursion level.\nIn a standard execution environment, the stack size is finite. By submitting a payload with a sufficiently deep nesting structure, an attacker triggers a stack overflow exception as the memory reserved for the stack frame is exhausted.\nThe attack flow typically begins with an attacker delivering a maliciously crafted file or data stream to the application. When the application passes this data to the affected rlottie component for rendering or parsing, the recursive descent algorithm begins processing the nested objects.\nBecause the parser does not enforce a recursion depth limit (e.g., via a counter or depth-tracking variable), it enters an infinite or excessively deep execution path. This results in the depletion of stack memory, triggering a segmentation fault or a process crash.\nThe affected versions include all releases prior to the inclusion of commit 8de0d9e6ca80ffef654965505981727b9fa06a51. This commit serves as the primary remediation point where logic was likely updated to properly bound the recursive processing.\nExploitation does not require authentication or specific administrative privileges; it is entirely dependent on the application's exposure to the adversarial input. If the library processes data from external sources—such as network streams, user-uploaded files, or third-party content—the attack vector is directly exposed.\nThe post-exploitation impact is primarily denial of service. However, in specific memory-sensitive environments, improper stack management can occasionally be leveraged for more advanced exploitation techniques depending on how the application handles signals and memory exceptions. The primary defensive concern remains the abrupt termination of the process, preventing further animation rendering or causing cascading failures in host applications."
}