CVE-2026-82797: Samsung rlottie Recursion Vulnerability

CVE-2026-82797 Overview

CVE-2026-82797 is an uncontrolled recursion vulnerability [CWE-674] in Samsung's open source rlottie library. The library renders Lottie animations parsed from serialized JSON data. Attackers can craft serialized data with deeply nested payloads that trigger unbounded recursive parsing. This exhausts stack resources and causes the host process to crash.

The flaw affects rlottie versions prior to commit 8de0d9e6ca80ffef654965505981727b9fa06a51. Exploitation requires local access and user interaction to load the malicious animation file. The impact is limited to availability, with no confidentiality or integrity consequences.

Critical Impact
A crafted Lottie animation file can crash any application that embeds a vulnerable rlottie build, producing a denial-of-service condition on the affected process.

Affected Products

Samsung Open Source rlottie library
Builds prior to commit 8de0d9e6ca80ffef654965505981727b9fa06a51
Applications and services that link against or embed vulnerable rlottie versions

Discovery Timeline

2026-08-31 - CVE-2026-82797 published to NVD
2026-09-01 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-82797

Vulnerability Analysis

The rlottie library parses serialized animation data structured as nested JSON objects. Nested groups, shapes, and modifiers are processed by recursive parser routines. The vulnerable code path does not enforce a maximum recursion depth. An attacker who supplies a payload with excessive nesting drives the parser into deep recursion.

Each recursive call consumes stack space for local variables and return addresses. Once stack space is exhausted, the process aborts with a stack overflow. The result is a reliable denial-of-service condition against any process that parses the malicious file.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing recursion depth validation in the deserialization logic. The parser trusts the structural depth declared by the input file. Upstream commit 8de0d9e6ca80ffef654965505981727b9fa06a51 introduces bounded parsing to reject deeply nested structures before they trigger stack exhaustion.

Attack Vector

Exploitation is local and requires user interaction. An attacker crafts a Lottie JSON file containing many layers of nested shape groups or transforms. The target opens the file in an application that uses rlottie, such as a messaging client, media viewer, or UI framework. The parser recurses until the thread stack is exhausted and the process terminates.

The vulnerability does not permit code execution, data disclosure, or state modification. The observable impact is limited to process crash and service disruption.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-82797

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected crashes or SIGSEGV signals in processes that render Lottie animations
Crash dumps showing recursive frames within rlottie parser functions
Lottie JSON files containing anomalously deep nesting of shape or group elements

Detection Strategies

Inventory applications and container images that ship rlottie and compare against the fixed commit hash
Scan JSON animation assets for nesting depth exceeding reasonable thresholds before rendering
Correlate application crash telemetry with recent file open or download events involving .json or .lottie assets

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable crash reporting on endpoints and forward reports to a central pipeline for triage
Monitor software composition analysis output for rlottie versions predating the fix commit
Track file transfers of Lottie assets from untrusted sources in messaging and collaboration tools

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-82797

Immediate Actions Required

Update embedded rlottie builds to a version including commit 8de0d9e6ca80ffef654965505981727b9fa06a51 or later
Rebuild and redeploy applications and container images that statically link vulnerable rlottie code
Restrict acceptance of Lottie animation files from untrusted sources until patched builds are deployed

Patch Information

The fix is available in the upstream Samsung repository. See the GitHub Pull Request for rlottie for the code change that introduces bounded parsing. Downstream vendors that ship rlottie should pull the fixed commit and rebuild affected products.

Workarounds

Validate incoming Lottie JSON files and reject any structure exceeding a defined nesting depth prior to rendering
Sandbox animation rendering in a separate process so crashes do not terminate the parent application
Disable Lottie animation loading in applications where the feature is not required

bash

# Configuration example
# Verify the rlottie build includes the fix commit
git -C /path/to/rlottie log --oneline | grep 8de0d9e6ca80ffef654965505981727b9fa06a51