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Fencer Vulns
high 8.7

CVE-2026-49852 json

joserfc: HS256/HS384/HS512 verify accepts empty/nil HMAC key (cross-language sibling of CVE-2026-45363)

published 2026-07-02 4 mo ago modified 2026-10-24 15 d ago also EUVD-2026-45281 , GHSA-gg9x-qcx2-xmrh , PYSEC-2026-2528

cvss
8.7
version 4.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 6%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

joserfc is a Python library that provides an implementation of several JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) standards. Prior to 1.6.8, joserfc.jwt.decode accepts attacker-forged HMAC-signed tokens when the caller-supplied verification key is the empty string or None, because HMACAlgorithm.sign and HMACAlgorithm.verify in src/joserfc/_rfc7518/jws_algs.py pass the output of OctKey.get_op_key(...) to hmac.new(...) and OctKey.import_key in src/joserfc/_rfc7518/oct_key.py only emits a SecurityWarning for keys shorter than 14 bytes without rejecting zero-length input. This issue is fixed in version 1.6.8.

Patch / fix

  • pypi joserfc 1.6.8
  • hsiaoming joserfc 1.6.8
  • joserfc Debian 14 1.6.8-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-49852

  • jaeger hummingbird 1 2.19.0-1.2.hum1

red hat advisories RHSA-2026:42045

  • python-joserfc openSUSE Leap 16.0 1.1.0-bp160.3.1
  • python-joserfc openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.7.2-2.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21263-1openSUSE-SU-2026:11183-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-49852 updated cvss 7.5

joserfc: joserfc: Integrity bypass via forged HMAC-signed tokens

  • Red Hat Hardened Images jaeger 2.19.0-1.2.hum1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:42045
  • Red Hat Lightspeed Core lightspeed-core/lightspeed-stack-rhel9 Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Applications 8 mta/mta-solution-server-rhel9 Red Hat OpenShift Lightspeed openshift-lightspeed/lightspeed-agentic-sandbox-rhel9 Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2 ansible-automation-platform-26/lightspeed-chatbot-rhel9, ansible-automation-platform-27/lightspeed-chatbot-rhel9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux command line assistant rhel-cla/rhel-knowledge-bridge-rhel10
    not affected: vulnerable code not present
  • Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4 container-native-virtualization/ocp-virt-validation-checkup-rhel9
    not affected: vulnerable code not in execute path
  • Red Hat Satellite 6 satellite/foreman-mcp-server-rhel9
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

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

Exploit prediction

0.17% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 6% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/authlib/joserfc/security/advisories/GHSA-gg9x-qcx2-xmrh referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 4.0 8.7 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CNA 4.0 8.7 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
pypi joserfc
<1.6.8
1.6.8

Affected products

  • authlib joserfc

Classification

Weakness

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.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.