cJSONUtils_ApplyPatches* dereferences NULL object on root-level add/replace

Start in cJSON_Utils.c at cJSONUtils_ApplyPatches(), cJSONUtils_ApplyPatchesCaseSensitive(), and apply_patch(), then build and run the provided poc_object_null.c command. Verify that a NULL object with a root-level add or replace returns an error code without crashing.

Summary

cJSONUtils_ApplyPatches() and cJSONUtils_ApplyPatchesCaseSensitive() do not validate that the object argument is non-NULL before passing it to apply_patch().

When a patch targets the root path ("") with an add or replace operation, this leads to an unconditional dereference of object, causing a crash.

Affected version

• cJSON 1.7.19
• Code path: cJSONUtils_ApplyPatches() / cJSONUtils_ApplyPatchesCaseSensitive()

Details

The public API forwards object directly to apply_patch() without validation:

CJSON_PUBLIC(int) cJSONUtils_ApplyPatches(cJSON * const object, const cJSON * const patches)
{
    ...
    while (current_patch != NULL)
    {
        status = apply_patch(object, current_patch, false);
        ...
    }
}

In apply_patch(), when handling a root-level path (""), object is dereferenced:

if (path->valuestring[0] == '\0')
{
    ...
    if ((opcode == REPLACE) || (opcode == ADD))
    {
        ...
        overwrite_item(object, *value);
        ...
        if (object->string != NULL)
        {
            cJSON_free(object->string);
            object->string = NULL;
        }
    }
}

While overwrite_item() itself tolerates NULL, the subsequent access to object->string does not.

Proof of Concept

#include "cJSON.h"
#include "cJSON_Utils.h"

int main(void)
{
    cJSON *patches = cJSON_CreateArray();
    cJSON *patch = cJSON_CreateObject();

    cJSON_AddItemToObject(patch, "op", cJSON_CreateString("add"));
    cJSON_AddItemToObject(patch, "path", cJSON_CreateString(""));
    cJSON_AddItemToObject(patch, "value", cJSON_CreateNumber(1));
    cJSON_AddItemToArray(patches, patch);

    return cJSONUtils_ApplyPatches(NULL, patches);
}

Build and run

gcc poc_object_null.c cJSON.c cJSON_Utils.c -o poc_object_null
./poc_object_null

On Windows with MinGW, this results in an access violation (0xC0000005).

Expected behavior

The API should handle invalid input gracefully. Passing a NULL object should not result in a crash; instead, the function should return an error code.

Suggested fix

One option is to validate the input at the public API boundary:

if (object == NULL)
{
    return 1;
}

Alternatively, apply_patch() could reject object == NULL before performing any operation-specific logic.

Adding a check at the public entry points would make the API behavior more predictable and consistent with defensive handling of invalid inputs.