CVE-2022-36083 [Medium] | Denial of Service in Jose

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).

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#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-05-01	0.46%	0.14%	-0.32%
2	2026-03-03	0.39%	0.46%	+0.08%
3	2025-11-26	—	0.39%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-05-01

0.46%

0.14%

-0.32%

2026-03-03

0.39%

0.46%

+0.08%

2025-11-26

—

0.39%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
5.3	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:N) Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine. Attack complexity (AC:L) Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup. Privileges required (PR:N) No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough. User interaction (UI:N) Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping. Scope (S:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:N) Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way. Integrity (I:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:L) Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.	3.9	1.4	[email protected]
5.3	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:N) Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine. Attack complexity (AC:L) Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup. Privileges required (PR:N) No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough. User interaction (UI:N) Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping. Scope (S:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:N) Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way. Integrity (I:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:L) Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.	3.9	1.4	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

5.3

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:N): Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L): Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N): No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N): Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N): Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:L): Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.

3.9

1.4

[email protected]

5.3

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:N): Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L): Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N): No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N): Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N): Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:L): Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.

3.9

1.4

[email protected]

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-36083

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2022-36083 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (node-jose), 2 status rows across 2 suites (bookworm, trixie): resolved 2.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-36083
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2022-36083 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (jose, node-jose), 26 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 10, ignored 9, needs-triage 3, DNE 2, needed 1, released 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-36083

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-36083

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
jose_project	jose	>= 1.0.0, < 1.28.2	cpe:2.3:a:jose_project:jose::::::node.js::*
jose_project	jose	>= 2.0.0, < 2.0.6	cpe:2.3:a:jose_project:jose::::::node.js::*
jose_project	jose	>= 3.0.0, < 3.20.4	cpe:2.3:a:jose_project:jose::::::node.js::*
jose_project	jose	>= 4.0.0, < 4.9.2	cpe:2.3:a:jose_project:jose::::::node.js::*

References for CVE-2022-36083

URL	Tags
https://github.com/panva/jose/commit/03d6d013bf6e070e85adfe5731f526978e3e8e4d	Patch Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/panva/jose/releases/tag/v4.9.2	Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/panva/jose/security/advisories/GHSA-jv3g-j58f-9mq9	Exploit Third Party Advisory

URL

CVE-2022-36083 | JOSE vulnerable to resource exhaustion via specifically crafted JWE

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2022-36083

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-36083

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-36083

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-36083

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2022-36083

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-36083

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-36083

References for CVE-2022-36083