jose4j is vulnerable to DoS via compressed JWE content

Description

In jose4j before 0.9.6, an attacker can cause a Denial-of-Service (DoS) condition by crafting a malicious JSON Web Encryption (JWE) token with an exceptionally high compression ratio. When this token is processed by the server, it results in significant memory allocation and processing time during decompression.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
high
Advisory on GitHub
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Repository advisory
Source code
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Published (advisory)
2025-12-17 18:31:33 UTC
Updated
2026-01-06 19:46:24 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2025-12-18 15:34:32 UTC
NVD published
2025-12-17

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.02% 6.07%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
7.5 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-1259 Improper Restriction of Security Token Assignment

Credits

  • ShichengRao (analyst)

Affected packages (1)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
maven org.bitbucket.b_c:jose4j < 0.9.6 0.9.6

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence