CVE-2026-49852
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.
What this means
- Exposure
- Exploitable remotely over the network, without authentication and with no action from the victim.
- Impact
- An attacker can modify or destroy data.
- Weakness
- The authentication mechanism can be bypassed, letting an attacker pose as a legitimate user.
- Likelihood
- Its EPSS score stays low: nothing points to imminent exploitation, which is no reason to leave it unpatched.
What to doFold into the next patch cycle. Start with the instances exposed to the internet.
Read automatically from the CVSS vector, the weakness type (CWE) and the EPSS score. The technical description above remains the one published by NIST.