Security advisory
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
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"
}