Skip to content
OpenAdvisories
High · 7.4 CVE-2026-120459 EUVD-2026-115219GHSA-7jv8-hwmh-86qc

python-jose through 3.5.0 Authentication Bypass via Empty HMAC Key

Published Nov 2, 2026 · Updated Nov 9, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck

Description

python-jose through 3.5.0 contains an authentication bypass vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to forge JWTs because HMACKey and CryptographyHMACKey accept zero-length HMAC secrets. When an application's HS256/HS384/HS512 verification key resolves to empty, such as an oct JWK with empty k, attackers can forge tokens with arbitrary claims that jwt.decode accepts.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
mpdavis python-jose ≤ 3.5.0 —

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 12 python-jose No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS python-jose No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS python-jose No fix yet —

References