Infinite loop on Double.parseDouble("2.2250738585072014e-308")

[Louis Simard]

Sun's and now Oracle's Java VMs, and OpenJDK, have a bug whereby inputting "2.2250738585072014e-308" or variations of it [1] to the java.lang.Double.parseDouble(String) method causes it to enter an infinite loop; control is not returned to the calling thread.

This bug can be used to cause remote denial of service on long-running servers by way of CPU time exhaustion and/or causing all threads of an application server's thread pool to enter infinite loops and becoming unable to service requests.

Ubuntu Lucid and Maverick are affected by the vulnerability caused by this bug.

Oracle has released a fix for this bug in the OpenJDK codebase [2].

[1] http://www.exploringbinary.com/java-hangs-when-converting-2-2250738585072012e-308/
[2] http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/tl/jdk/rev/82c8c54ac1d5