---
id: GHSA-74fp-r6jw-h4mp
aliases:
  - GO-2022-0965
title: >-
  Kubernetes apimachinery packages vulnerable to unbounded recursion in JSON or
  YAML parsing
summary: >-
  Kubernetes apimachinery packages vulnerable to unbounded recursion in JSON or
  YAML parsing
severity: high
cvss: 7.5
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'
vendor: apimachinery
product: k8s.io/apimachinery
ecosystem: go
affected:
  - k8s.io/apimachinery < 0.0.0-20190927203648-9ce6eca90e73
patched:
  - k8s.io/apimachinery 0.0.0-20190927203648-9ce6eca90e73
published: '2023-02-08'
updated: '2026-08-07'
source: OSV
sourceUrl: 'https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-74fp-r6jw-h4mp'
references:
  - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-11253'
  - url: 'https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/83253'
  - url: 'https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/83261'
  - url: 'https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-pmqp-h87c-mr78'
  - url: 'https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes'
  - url: 'https://groups.google.com/g/kubernetes-security-announce/c/jk8polzSUxs'
  - url: 'https://pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2022-0965'
  - url: >-
      https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58129150/security-yaml-bomb-user-can-restart-kube-api-by-sending-configmap
tags:
  - osv
  - go
ingestedAt: '2026-08-07T19:14:16.032Z'
---

## Overview

CVE-2019-11253 is a denial of service vulnerability in the kube-apiserver, allowing authorized users sending malicious YAML or JSON payloads to cause kube-apiserver to consume excessive CPU or memory, potentially crashing and becoming unavailable. 

When creating a ConfigMap object which has recursive references contained in it, excessive CPU usage can occur. This appears to be an instance of a "Billion Laughs" attack which is quite well known as an XML parsing issue.

Applying this manifest to a cluster causes the client to hang for some time with considerable CPU usage.

```yaml
apiVersion: v1
data:
  a: &a ["web","web","web","web","web","web","web","web","web"]
  b: &b [*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a]
  c: &c [*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b]
  d: &d [*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c]
  e: &e [*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d]
  f: &f [*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e]
  g: &g [*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f]
  h: &h [*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g]
  i: &i [*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h]
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: yaml-bomb
  namespace: default
```
### Specific Go Packages Affected
- k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/json
- k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/json


## Affected packages

- `k8s.io/apimachinery < 0.0.0-20190927203648-9ce6eca90e73`

## Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

- `k8s.io/apimachinery 0.0.0-20190927203648-9ce6eca90e73`