Skip to content
Heist/ feed
Back to feed
Medium

Security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVCVE: CVE-2021-39194

kaml is an open source implementation of the YAML format with support for kotlinx.serialization. In affected versions attackers that could provide arbitrary YAML input to an application that uses kaml could cause the application to endlessly loop while parsing the input. This could result in resource starvation and denial of service. This only affects applications that use polymorphic serialization with the default tagged polymorphism style. Applications using the property polymorphism style are not affected. YAML input for a polymorphic type that provided a tag but no value for the object would trigger the issue. Version 0.35.3 or later contain the fix for this issue.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2021-39194
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
31 Oct 2026, 11:53 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

CVE-2021-39194

core-osv · Original source

Published 7 Sept 2021, 20:15 UTC

kaml is an open source implementation of the YAML format with support for kotlinx.serialization. In affected versions attackers that could provide arbitrary YAML input to an application that uses kaml could cause the application to endlessly loop while parsing the input. This could result in resource starvation and denial of service. This only affects applications that use polymorphic serialization with the default tagged polymorphism style. Applications using the property polymorphism style are not affected. YAML input for a polymorphic type that provided a tag but no value for the object would trigger the issue. Version 0.35.3 or later contain the fix for this issue.

osv:CVE-2021-39194
Complete source record
{
  "id": "877b6e9023d2735be1b49481d7fc0404bc4c4cab404b921c5de56f2017222e70",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-39194",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "CVE-2021-39194",
    "summary": "kaml is an open source implementation of the YAML format with support for kotlinx.serialization. In affected versions attackers that could provide arbitrary YAML input to an application that uses kaml could cause the application to endlessly loop while parsing the input. This could result in resource starvation and denial of service. This only affects applications that use polymorphic serialization with the default tagged polymorphism style. Applications using the property polymorphism style are not affected. YAML input for a polymorphic type that provided a tag but no value for the object would trigger the issue. Version 0.35.3 or later contain the fix for this issue.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2021-39194",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "medium",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2021-39194",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2021-39194",
        "GHSA-fmm9-3gv8-58f4"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/charleskorn/kaml",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "e18785d043fc6324c81e968aae9764b4b060bc6a"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:kaml_project:kaml:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "0.35.3"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "e18785d043fc6324c81e968aae9764b4b060bc6a"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "0.35.2",
            "0.35.1",
            "0.35.0",
            "0.34.0",
            "0.33.0",
            "0.32.0",
            "0.31.0",
            "0.30.0",
            "0.29.0",
            "0.28.3",
            "0.28.2",
            "0.28.1",
            "0.28.0",
            "0.27.0",
            "0.26.0",
            "0.25.0",
            "0.24.0",
            "0.23.0",
            "0.22.0",
            "0.21.0",
            "0.20.0",
            "0.19.0",
            "0.18.1",
            "0.18.0",
            "0.17.0",
            "0.16.1",
            "0.16.0",
            "0.15.0",
            "0.14.0",
            "0.13.0",
            "0.12.0",
            "0.11.0",
            "0.10.0",
            "0.9.0",
            "0.8.0",
            "0.7.0",
            "0.6.0",
            "0.5.0",
            "0.4.0",
            "0.3.0",
            "0.2.1",
            "0.2.0",
            "0.1.0"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2021-39194.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-20T10:54:53.795473821Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/charleskorn/kaml/commit/e18785d043fc6324c81e968aae9764b4b060bc6a",
        "https://github.com/charleskorn/kaml/issues/179",
        "https://github.com/charleskorn/kaml/security/advisories/GHSA-fmm9-3gv8-58f4"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {}
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2021-39194",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 386403,
  "published_at": "2021-09-07T20:15:08.193+00:00"
}