CVE-2020-26883
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIn Play Framework 2.6.0 through 2.8.2, stack consumption can occur because of unbounded recursion during parsing of crafted JSON documents.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceStack consumption vulnerability in Play Framework's JSON parser allows denial of service via unbounded recursion when parsing specially crafted JSON documents. Affects versions 2.6.0 through 2.8.2. An attacker can send malicious JSON input to trigger excessive recursive calls, potentially causing stack overflow or service unavailability.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 2.6.25>= 2.7.0, <= 2.7.5>= 2.8.0, <= 2.8.2CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Play Framework version in your build configurationExamine your build.sbt (for Scala) or build.gradle (for Java) file. Look for the play or play-framework dependency declaration. The version is typically specified after % or :: (for Scala) or in the version field (for Gradle). For example: "com.typesafe.play" %% "play" % "2.8.0" or implementation("com.typesafe.play:play:2.8.0")Affected if The declared version falls within any of these ranges: 2.6.0 to 2.6.25 inclusive, 2.7.0 to 2.7.5 inclusive, or 2.8.0 to 2.8.2 inclusive
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Check compiled application JAR or lib directory for Play librariesLocate the JAR files or library files in your deployed application under the lib or libs directory. Identify JARs with names containing "play_" or "play-json" and note their version numbers from the filename (for example, play_2.13-2.8.0.jar indicates version 2.8.0)Affected if Any play library JAR shows a version within the affected ranges listed above
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Verify JSON parsing is in useReview your application code for imports and usage of play.api.libs.json (Scala) or play.libs.json (Java). Search for Json.parse(), Json.toJson(), or similar JSON serialization/deserialization methods in your source filesAffected if JSON parsing code is present and your Play Framework version is within the affected ranges (the vulnerability is in the JSON parser itself, so parsing any untrusted JSON triggers it)
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Check runtime startup output for framework versionStart your Play application and examine the console output or logs. During initialization, Play typically logs its version. Search for lines containing "Play" or "playframework" followed by a version numberAffected if The logged version matches any of the affected ranges: 2.6.x (2.6.0-2.6.25), 2.7.x (2.7.0-2.7.5), or 2.8.x (2.8.0-2.8.2)
You are affected if your Play Framework version is 2.6.0 through 2.6.25, 2.7.0 through 2.7.5, or 2.8.0 through 2.8.2 and your application parses JSON input from external sources.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade Play Framework to version 2.8.3 or later which contains the security fix. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, implement input validation, request size limits, and rate limiting on JSON endpoints as compensating controls.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing12.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-26883 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-26883 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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