CVE-2026-119283VulnerabilityPublished 31 Oct 2026

kaskade · joserfc: Unbounded JWE General JSON `recipients` Array Leads to CPU Exhaustion (DoS) via Repeated RSA Private-Key

Affects kaskadeSource GCVE Database

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Authoritative record:CVE-2026-119283· High 7.5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High : upgrade to 5.0.0 soon.

Data as of 31 Oct 2026, 16:07 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

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

Thin evidence

One scorer or none

CVSS scores by source
CNA (GitHub_M)	CVSS 3.1	7.5

Patch: Available – fixed in 5.0.0

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

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

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: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 29 Oct 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 30 Oct 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 kaskade to 5.0.0.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Homebrewkaskade`pkg:brew/kaskade`Other threats	Affected >=4.0.7_4 <5.0.0	Fixed in 5.0.0

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

AI-suggested

A fix is available in joserfc version 5.0.0. Users should upgrade to this version or later to mitigate the vulnerability. The library's existing verify_all_recipients option does not reduce CPU usage and is not an effective mitigation.

Description

The joserfc library's JWE General JSON parser accepts an attacker-controlled recipients array of unlimited length and performs a costly RSA private-key decryption operation for each recipient. This lack of a cap on recipient count enables an unauthenticated attacker to cause CPU exhaustion (Denial of Service) by sending a single JWE JSON document with many recipients. The library's documented mitigation option does not reduce CPU usage, making the issue exploitable. A fix is available in version 5.0.0.

Impact

An unauthenticated network attacker can cause a denial of service by forcing the victim to perform an attacker-chosen number of expensive RSA private-key decryptions via a single JWE General JSON document with many recipients. This leads to uncontrolled CPU resource consumption, potentially degrading or denying service to legitimate users.

Summary

The joserfc library's decrypt_json() function processes the recipients array in a JWE General JSON Serialization without any upper bound on the number of recipients. For each recipient, it performs a full RSA private-key decryption operation (decrypt_cek), which is computationally expensive. This leads to a CPU exhaustion vulnerability (CWE-400) because an attacker can craft a JWE JSON with a large recipients array, causing the victim to perform many RSA decryptions from a single request. The library caps sizes of other JWE components but does not limit recipients count. The documented verify_all_recipients option does not mitigate CPU cost since all recipients are decrypted unconditionally before this flag is checked. The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.5 (High). The issue is fixed in joserfc version 5.0.0.

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Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 31 Oct 2026, 16:07 UTC

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