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Medium · 6.9 CVE-2025-48994 EUVD-2025-16666GHSA-6vx8-pcwv-xhf4PYSEC-2026-1921

SignXML's signature verification with HMAC is vulnerable to an algorithm confusion attack

Published Jun 2, 2025 · Updated Jun 2, 2025 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

SignXML is an implementation of the W3C XML Signature standard in Python. When verifying signatures with X509 certificate validation turned off and HMAC shared secret set (`signxml.XMLVerifier.verify(require_x509=False, hmac_key=...`), versions of SignXML prior to 4.0.4 are vulnerable to a potential algorithm confusion attack. Unless the user explicitly limits the expected signature algorithms using the `signxml.XMLVerifier.verify(expect_config=...)` setting, an attacker may supply a signature unexpectedly signed with a key other than the provided HMAC key, using a different (asymmetric key) signature algorithm. Starting with SignXML 4.0.4, specifying `hmac_key` causes the set of accepted signature algorithms to be restricted to HMAC only, if not already restricted by the user.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
XML-Security signxml < 4.0.4 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 python-signxml 4.0.5+dfsg-1 —
Debian 13 python-signxml 4.0.5+dfsg-1 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 python-signxml No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS python-signxml No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 python-signxml No fix yet —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
PyPI signxml < 4.0.4 4.0.4 GHSA-6vx8-pcwv-xhf4

References