The CVE reports that cJSONUtils_ApplyPatches() mutates the target when a
patch fails part-way, "defeating the all-or-nothing behavior callers rely
on". cJSON never offers that guarantee: cJSON_Utils.h documents "Note that
ApplyPatches is NOT atomic on failure" and gives the Duplicate-then-swap
recipe for callers that need atomicity. No memory-safety impact; the
behaviour is the documented API contract. Upstream has not commented and
Debian lists it unfixed with no fix in any suite.