CVE-2026-53938

OpenIDC/cjose is a C library implementing the Javascript Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE). Prior to version 0.6.2.5, cjose's JWE decryption path for the AES Key Wrap key-management algorithms (`alg` = `A128KW`, `A192KW`, `A256KW`) does not validate the length of the attacker-supplied `encrypted_key` (JWE Encrypted Key) before unwrapping it into a fixed-size, heap-allocated Content Encryption Key (CEK) buffer. A remote, unauthenticated attacker who can submit a crafted JWE to an application that decrypts it with an AES-KW symmetric key can trigger an out-of-bounds heap write, corrupting the heap. This leads at minimum to a crash (denial of service) and, depending on the heap layout and allocator, may be leverageable for further memory-corruption impact. `cjose_jwe_import()` / `cjose_jwe_decrypt()` are pre-authentication entry points: they parse and process fully attacker-controlled input. Upgrade to cjose 0.6.2.5 to receive a patch. If upgrading is not immediately possible, reject the AES Key Wrap algorithms (`A128KW`/`A192KW`/`A256KW`) for untrusted JWEs at the application layer.

Scoring

Severity
HIGH
CVSS base score
8.2
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
EPSS probability
0.24%
CWE
CWE-122, CWE-787
Published
2026-09-08
Last modified
2026-09-09

Affected products

Weakness type

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