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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.3

CVE-2022-36083 json

JOSE vulnerable to resource exhaustion via specifically crafted JWE

published 2022-09-07 4 y ago modified 2026-06-22 4 mo ago also GHSA-jv3g-j58f-9mq9 , EUVD-2022-6862

cvss
5.3
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.6%
EPSS 1.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 76%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

JOSE is "JSON Web Almost Everything" - JWA, JWS, JWE, JWT, JWK, JWKS with no dependencies using runtime's native crypto in Node.js, Browser, Cloudflare Workers, Electron, and Deno. The PBKDF2-based JWE key management algorithms expect a JOSE Header Parameter named `p2c` PBES2 Count, which determines how many PBKDF2 iterations must be executed in order to derive a CEK wrapping key. The purpose of this parameter is to intentionally slow down the key derivation function in order to make password brute-force and dictionary attacks more expensive. This makes the PBES2 algorithms unsuitable for situations where the JWE is coming from an untrusted source: an adversary can intentionally pick an extremely high PBES2 Count value, that will initiate a CPU-bound computation that may take an unreasonable amount of time to finish. Under certain conditions, it is possible to have the user's environment consume unreasonable amount of CPU time. The impact is limited only to users utilizing the JWE decryption APIs with symmetric secrets to decrypt JWEs from untrusted parties who do not limit the accepted JWE Key Management Algorithms (`alg` Header Parameter) using the `keyManagementAlgorithms` (or `algorithms` in v1.x) decryption option or through other means. The `v1.28.2`, `v2.0.6`, `v3.20.4`, and `v4.9.2` releases limit the maximum PBKDF2 iteration count to `10000` by default. It is possible to adjust this limit with a newly introduced `maxPBES2Count` decryption option. If users are unable to upgrade their required library version, they have two options depending on whether they expect to receive JWEs using any of the three PBKDF2-based JWE key management algorithms. They can use the `keyManagementAlgorithms` decryption option to disable accepting PBKDF2 altogether, or they can inspect the JOSE Header prior to using the decryption API and limit the PBKDF2 iteration count (`p2c` Header Parameter).

Patch / fix

  • npm jose 1.28.2, 2.0.6, 3.20.4, 4.9.2
  • npm jose-browser-runtime 3.20.4, 4.9.2
  • npm jose-node-cjs-runtime 3.20.4, 4.9.2
  • npm jose-node-esm-runtime 3.20.4, 4.9.2
  • panva jose 1.28.2, 2.0.6, 3.20.4, 4.9.2
  • node-jose Debian 13, Debian 12 4.9.2-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2022-36083

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
18 mo ago

Exploit prediction

1.64% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 76% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/panva/jose/security/advisories/GHSA-jv3g-j58f-9mq9 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
NVD 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
GitHub 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
npm jose
>=1.0.0, <1.28.2
>=2.0.0, <2.0.6
>=3.0.0, <3.20.4
>=4.0.0, <4.9.2
1.28.2
2.0.6
3.20.4
4.9.2
npm jose-browser-runtime
>=3.0.0, <3.20.4
>=4.0.0, <4.9.2
3.20.4
4.9.2
npm jose-node-cjs-runtime
>=3.0.0, <3.20.4
>=4.0.0, <4.9.2
3.20.4
4.9.2
npm jose-node-esm-runtime
>=3.0.0, <3.20.4
>=4.0.0, <4.9.2
3.20.4
4.9.2

Affected products

  • panva jose

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
  • CWE-834 Excessive Iteration

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.