CVE-2026-53939

Summary

OpenIDC/cjose is a C library implementing the Javascript Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE). In versions 0.6.1 through 0.6.2.5, when cjose encrypts a JWE using an AES-CBC-HMAC content-encryption algorithm (A128CBC-HS256, A192CBC-HS384, or A256CBC-HS512) together with any key-management algorithm that generates a fresh content-encryption key (CEK), the CEK is all zero bytes instead of being randomly generated. The resulting JWE is therefore encrypted and authenticated under a fixed, publicly known key, so anyone who obtains the JWE can recover the plaintext and forge or modify the content. This is fixed in version 0.6.2.6 by _cjose_jwe_set_cek_aes_cbc() generating the CEK from RAND_bytes. A regression test asserts that the encrypted_key differs across two encryptions for each AES-CBC-HMAC variant. Until upgrading, for data encrypted with cjose, three options are available. Use an AES-GCM enc (A128GCM / A192GCM / A256GCM) instead of an AES-CBC-HMAC enc, use alg=dir with a caller-supplied CEK, or avoid using cjose for JWE encryption with the affected algorithm pair. These are mitigations for new ciphertexts only; data already encrypted under the zero key remains compromised and should be re-encrypted (and any secrets it contained rotated).

Affected Software

VendorProductVersion RangeStatus
OpenIDCcjose>= 0.6.1, < 0.6.2.6affected

Weaknesses

  • CWE-321: CWE-321: Use of Hard-coded Cryptographic Key
  • CWE-330: CWE-330: Use of Insufficiently Random Values

References