VulnerabilityPublished 28 Sep 2026

CVE-2026-101918: jpadilla pyjwt · Uncaught Exception

Affects jpadilla pyjwtSource CVE Database V5

Compare

Mentioned vulnerabilities

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.3 Medium : upgrade to 2.15.0 when convenient.

Data as of 12 Nov 2026, 23:24 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.3Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 36% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 2.15.0

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: Low

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 28 Sep 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 13 Nov 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade jpadilla pyjwt to 2.15.0.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
jpadillapyjwt	Affected >=2.0.0a1 <2.15.0	Fixed in 2.15.0
PyPIpyjwt`pkg:pypi/pyjwt`Other threats	Affected >=2.0.0a1 <2.15.0	Fixed in 2.15.0

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

The suggested fix is to update the exception handling in jwt/api_jwt.py to catch RecursionError alongside ValueError during payload decoding, mirroring the existing fix for the header path. Similarly, add RecursionError handling in jwt/jwks_client.py when parsing JWKS endpoint responses. If you cannot patch yet, consider mitigating by limiting payload complexity or applying input validation to reject excessively nested JSON payloads if feasible. No other specific mitigations are documented.

Description

setup.py test %endif Security Fix(es): PyJWT is a Python implementation of JSON Web Token standards. From 2.0.0a1 until 2.15.0, PyJWT PyJWKClient.get_signing_key_from_jwt is affected because payload parser catches ValueError but not RecursionError. This occurs when an attacker-controlled recursively nested payload reaches json.loads. As a result, documented PyJWT exception handling does not contain the failure. Consequently, an unauthenticated request can raise an exception that may produce an HTTP 500 response. The advisory-defined affected implementation also includes jwt/api_jwt.py, verify_signature=False. This issue is fixed in version 2.15.0.(CVE-2026-101918) PyJWT is a Python implementation of JSON Web Token standards. From 2.13.0 until 2.14.0, PyJWS._load in jwt/api_jws.py is affected because parser catches ValueError but not RecursionError. This occurs when a deeply nested token header reaches json.loads. As a result, RecursionError escapes the documented PyJWT error hierarchy. Consequently, an unauthenticated malformed token can cause a request-level failure and HTTP 500. This issue is fixed in version 2.14.0.(CVE-2026-102265) PyJWT is a Python implementation of JSON Web Token standards. Prior to 2.14.0, PyJWT signature segment is affected because signature segment decoding accepts characters outside the canonical Base64URL representation. This occurs when non-Base64URL characters are appended to a valid compact JWS signature segment. As a result, base64url_decode produces the same signature bytes for different serialized segments. Consequently, raw-token revocation checks can fail to recognize an equivalent modified token. This issue is fixed in version 2.14.0.(CVE-2026-102269) PyJWT is a Python implementation of JSON Web Token standards. From 2.1.0 until 2.15.0, PyJWT OKPAlgorithm.from_jwk in jwt/algorithms.py is affected because private-JWK import path does not compare the public key derived from d with x. This occurs when an OKP private JWK supplies non-corresponding x and d components. As a result, identity derived from x can differ from operations performed with d. Consequently, if an integration also accepts private key parameters from a proof header without rejecting them, an attacker may use a stolen sender-constrained token without the legitimate private key. This issue is fixed in version 2.15.0.(CVE-2026-102275)

Impact

An unauthenticated attacker can cause a denial-of-service by sending a JWT token with a deeply nested JSON payload that triggers an uncaught RecursionError during parsing, crashing the authentication handler and causing HTTP 500 errors or dead worker processes. This does not allow authentication bypass or data compromise. The JWKS endpoint parsing issue requires control or interception of the JWKS endpoint and can similarly cause service disruption. The impact is limited to availability degradation.

Summary

The vulnerability arises in PyJWT's PyJWKClient.get_signing_key_from_jwt(token) method, which decodes the JWT payload using json.loads. If the payload JSON is deeply nested (~20,000 levels), json.loads raises a RecursionError, which is not caught because the code only handles ValueError. This results in an uncaught exception crashing the auth handler (HTTP 500). The same issue affects JWKS endpoint response parsing in PyJWKClient.fetch_data, where RecursionError is also uncaught. The header parsing path was previously fixed to catch RecursionError, but the payload path was missed. The vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to cause denial-of-service by sending a crafted token or, for the JWKS path, by controlling or MITM'ing the JWKS endpoint. The recommended fix is to catch RecursionError alongside ValueError and raise a proper DecodeError or PyJWKClientError. This issue is confirmed in PyJWT versions >=2.0.0a1 and <2.15.0, including the current 2.14.0 release and master branch.

CWE-248Uncaught Exception (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessOWASP Top 10 A10:2025: Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions (opens in a new tab)
An exception is thrown from a function, but it is not caught.
Requirements
The choice between a language which has named or unnamed exceptions needs to be done. While unnamed exceptions exacerbate the chance of not properly dealing with an exception, named exceptions suffer from the up call version of the weak base class problem.
Requirements
A language can be used which requires, at compile time, to catch all serious exceptions. However, one must make sure to use the most current version of the API as new exceptions could be added.
Implementation
Catch all relevant exceptions. This is the recommended solution. Ensure that all exceptions are handled in such a way that you can be sure of the state of your system at any given moment.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Logging (opens in a new tab)
Error Handling (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 17 Oct 2026, 22:48 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-248

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats