CVE-2024-28176: jose vulnerable to resource exhaustion via specifically crafted JWE with compressed plaintext
A vulnerability has been identified in the JSON Web Encryption (JWE) decryption interfaces, specifically related to the support for decompressing plaintext after its decryption. This allows an adversary to exploit specific scenarios where the compression ratio becomes exceptionally high. As a result, the length of the JWE token, which is determined by the compressed content's size, can land below application-defined limits. In such cases, other existing application level mechanisms for preventing resource exhaustion may be rendered ineffective.
Note that as per RFC 8725 compression of data SHOULD NOT be done before encryption, because such compressed data often reveals information about the plaintext. For this reason the v5.x major version of jose removed support for compressed payloads entirely and is therefore NOT affected by this advisory.
Impact
Under certain conditions it is possible to have the user's environment consume unreasonable amount of CPU time or memory during JWE Decryption operations.
Affected users
The impact is limited only to Node.js users utilizing the JWE decryption APIs to decrypt JWEs from untrusted sources.
You are NOT affected if any of the following applies to you
- Your code uses jose version v5.x where JWE Compression is not supported anymore - Your code runs in an environment other than Node.js (e.g. Deno, CF Workers), which is the only runtime where JWE Compression is implemented out of the box - Your code does not use the JWE decryption APIs - Your code only accepts JWEs produced by trusted sources
Patches
v2.0.7 and v4.15.5 releases limit the decompression routine to only allow decompressing up to 250 kB of plaintext. In v4.x it is possible to further adjust this limit via the inflateRaw decryption option implementation. In v2.x it is possible to further adjust this limit via the inflateRawSyncLimit decryption option.
Workarounds
If you cannot upgrade and do not want to support compressed JWEs you may detect and reject these tokens early by checking the token's protected header
js const { zip } = jose.decodeProtectedHeader(token) if (zip !== undefined) { throw new Error('JWE Compression is not supported') }
If you wish to continue supporting JWEs with compressed payloads in these legacy release lines you must upgrade (v1.x and v2.x to version v2.0.7, v3.x and v4.x to version v4.15.5) and review the limits put forth by the patched releases.
For more information If you have any questions or comments about this advisory please open a discussion in the project's repository
Other sources
jose is JavaScript module for JSON Object Signing and Encryption, providing support for JSON Web Tokens (JWT), JSON Web Signature (JWS), JSON Web Encryption (JWE), JSON Web Key (JWK), JSON Web Key Set (JWKS), and more. A vulnerability has been identified in the JSON Web Encryption (JWE) decryption interfaces, specifically related to the support for decompressing plaintext after its decryption. Under certain conditions it is possible to have the user's environment consume unreasonable amount of CPU time or memory during JWE Decryption operations. This issue has been patched in versions 2.0.7 and 4.15.5.
— NVD
Node.js jose module is vulnerable to a denial of service, caused by a flaw during JWE Decryption operations. By sending a specially crafted request, a remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to consume unreasonable amount of CPU time or memory, and results in a denial of service condition.
— IBM
Affected Software
Remediation
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the severity of CVE-2024-28176?
CVE-2024-28176 has been categorized with a high severity due to its potential impact on JSON Web Encryption implementations.
How do I fix CVE-2024-28176?
To remediate CVE-2024-28176, update the affected libraries to the fixed versions 2.0.7 for jose and 4.15.5 for jose-node-esm-runtime and jose-node-cjs-runtime.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-28176?
Versions prior to 2.0.7 for jose and versions up to 4.15.4 for both jose-node-esm-runtime and jose-node-cjs-runtime are affected by CVE-2024-28176.
Does CVE-2024-28176 affect IBM Cognos Analytics?
Yes, CVE-2024-28176 affects certain versions of IBM Cognos Analytics up to 12.0.3 and 11.2.4 FP4.
What type of vulnerability is CVE-2024-28176?
CVE-2024-28176 is a vulnerability related to JSON Web Encryption decryption interfaces that allows adversaries to exploit decompression of plaintext after decryption.