Resource exhaustion in Authlib Joserfc

CVE-2026-27932

joserfc is a Python library that provides an implementation of several JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) standards. In 1.6.2 and earlier, a resource exhaustion vulnerability in joserfc allows an unauthenticated attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) via CPU exhaustion. When the library decrypts a JSON Web Encryption (JWE) token using Password-Based Encryption (PBES2) algorithms, it reads the p2c (PBES2 Count) parameter directly from the token's protected header. This parameter defines the number of iterations for the PBKDF2 key derivation function. Because joserfc does not validate or bound this value, an attacker can specify an extremely large iteration count (e.g., 2^31 - 1), forcing the server to expend massive CPU resources processing a single token. This vulnerability exists at the JWA layer and impacts all high-level JWE and JWT decryption interfaces if PBES2 algorithms are allowed by the application's policy.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.003 (24.3th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 24th percentile — 24.3% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-27932: held from 0.004 to 0.003.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.003 · change: -0.001

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-27932?
CVE-2026-27932 is a high-severity vulnerability in Authlib Joserfc, classified under Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2026-03-03.
How severe is CVE-2026-27932?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.