ZeroHour

CVE-2026-85239

moderate

Input Validation Bypass in MISP Event Templates Enables Persistent DoS

CVSS 4.0
7.1 high
EPSS
<1%p15
Published
()
Modified
AI analysis

MISP's EventTemplate::beforeValidate() skipped semantic validation of the template definition whenever it was supplied as a pre-encoded string rather than an array, so malformed JSON or JSON of an unexpected type could pass only the generic notBlank check and be stored in the database. An authenticated user with permission to create or modify event templates can persist such an invalid definition, and because EventTemplate::afterFind() later decodes stored definitions without handling failures, a single bad row raises an unhandled exception and causes HTTP 500 errors on the event template index and other EventTemplate-backed queries until the database row is manually repaired. The CVSS 4.0 score is 7.1 (High) with availability impact only (no confidentiality or integrity loss per the vector), and the MISP lead developer has stated that data poisoning does not appear reachable. Any MISP deployment in which users can create or edit event templates is exposed; the affected version range is not specified in the available data. Exploitation has not been observed: there is no public PoC, EPSS is 0.2%, and the flaw is not in CISA KEV.

What to do: Upgrade MISP to the patched release (no fixed version number is provided in the available data, so confirm the fixed version with the MISP project or your distribution), which enforces object-typed definitions with full semantic validation on save and tolerantly handles malformed rows on retrieval. As an interim mitigation, restrict event-template creation and modification to trusted administrators, and if the template index is already returning HTTP 500 errors, locate and manually repair or delete the malformed event_templates row in the database.

Affected
MISP (core platform, event template handling)
Estimated exposure
moderate≈1,000–10,000 deployed MISP instances (order of tens of thousands of users) — estimate — MISP is a specialized threat-intelligence platform deployed primarily by CERTs/CSIRTs, ISACs and enterprise threat-intel teams, with internet-wide scans reporting on the order of a few thousand exposed MISP servers and project materials…

Order-of-magnitude estimate by the model from install counts, market share and public scan data it knows; verify before quoting.

Description

A vulnerability in MISP's event template handling allowed an authenticated user with permission to create or modify event templates to bypass validation of the template definition field. The EventTemplate::beforeValidate() method only performed semantic validation when the supplied definition was already represented as an array. If a caller instead supplied a pre-encoded string, including malformed JSON or JSON representing an unexpected data type, the value bypassed validateDefinition() and only needed to satisfy the generic notBlank validation rule. As a result, an invalid event template definition could be stored persistently in the database. When event templates were subsequently retrieved, EventTemplate::afterFind() attempted to decode the stored definition using JsonTool::decode() without handling decoding failures. A definition containing invalid JSON could therefore trigger an exception during retrieval. Because the event template index is available to all authenticated users, a single malicious or malformed template could make the event template listing and other functionality relying on EventTemplate queries return HTTP 500 errors until the offending database row was manually repaired. Valid JSON representing an unexpected type, rather than the expected JSON object, could similarly result in invalid data reaching downstream consumers. The vulnerability can therefore be exploited by a user capable of saving event templates to persist malformed template data and cause a persistent denial of service against event-template functionality for other users. The patch enforces that event template definitions must be supplied as structured objects before saving and always applies semantic validation. On retrieval, malformed JSON and definitions that do not decode to the expected structure are caught, logged, and replaced with an empty definition, preventing a malformed database entry from breaking all event template queries. Poisoning doesn't seem reachable according to the lead developer.

Vendors
misp-project
Products
misp
Weakness
CWE-20
Vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

In the news

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