Use of Password Hash With Insufficient Computational Effort in the jose library allows an attacker who obtains a password-encrypted private-key export to recover the private key through an offline password-cracking attack
Affects joseSource GCVE Database
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.4 High.
Data as of 28 Oct 2026, 22:28 UTC
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:NExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 26 Oct 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: 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 26 Oct 2026.
What to do
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
Ubuntu 26.10josepkg:deb/ubuntu/jose?arch=source&distro=stonkingOther threats | Affected
| Fixed in– |
Ubuntu 26.04 LTSjosepkg:deb/ubuntu/jose?arch=source&distro=resoluteOther threats | Affected
| Fixed in– |
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSjosepkg:deb/ubuntu/jose?arch=source&distro=nobleOther threats | Affected
| Fixed in– |
Ubuntu 22.04 LTSjosepkg:deb/ubuntu/jose?arch=source&distro=jammyOther threats | Affected
| Fixed in– |
Ubuntu 20.04 LTSjosepkg:deb/ubuntu/jose?arch=source&distro=focalOther threats | Affected
| Fixed in– |
Ubuntu 18.04 LTSjosepkg:deb/ubuntu/jose?arch=source&distro=bionicOther threats | Affected
| Fixed in– |
Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.
Description
Use of Password Hash With Insufficient Computational Effort in the jose library allows an attacker who obtains a password-encrypted private-key export to recover the private key through an offline password-cracking attack. When jose exports a password-encrypted private key with jose_jwk:to_der/2 (JOSE.JWK.to_der/2), the jose_jwk_der:to_binary/3 function in src/jwk/jose_jwk_der.erl serializes the key as a PKCS#8 EncryptedPrivateKeyInfo using the PBES2 scheme with hardcoded key-derivation parameters: PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 with an iteration count of 2048 and an 8-byte (64-bit) random salt. Neither value can be overridden by the caller. Both values are far below current guidance (OWASP recommends on the order of 600,000 iterations for PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256, and NIST recommends salts of at least 128 bits), so the key-stretching work factor is roughly 300 times lower than intended and the short salt reduces the cost of precomputation across keys. The symmetric encryption (AES-256-CBC with a 16-byte random IV) is not affected; the weakness is entirely in the derivation strength. An attacker who obtains one of these exported blobs (for example from a backup, configuration repository, object storage, or logs) can mount a cheap offline dictionary or brute-force attack against the export password, and success yields the full private key. This issue affects jose: from 1.10.0 before 1.11.13.
References
- ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-65629 (opens in a new tab)
- cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-65629 (opens in a new tab)
- cna.erlef.org/cves/cve-2026-65629.html (opens in a new tab)
- github.com (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/potatosalad/erlang-jose (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/potatosalad/erlang-jose/commit/461b261902531ca016190e780bb70862d561a7e0 (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/potatosalad/erlang-jose/commit/85fddd89ee56b6f9c19eff7d9cfffeef62c330b9 (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/potatosalad/erlang-jose/security/advisories/ghsa-h4gx-8jq2-mfhc (opens in a new tab)
- hex.pm/packages/jose (opens in a new tab)
- repo.hex.pm (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/cveproject/cvelistv5/tree/main/cves/2026/65xxx/cve-2026-65629.json (opens in a new tab)
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/cve-2026-65629 (opens in a new tab)
- osv.dev/vulnerability/eef-cve-2026-65629 (opens in a new tab)