Use of Hard-coded Cryptographic Key in cjose - #VU133240
Published: June 2, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU133240
CSH Severity: High
CVSS v4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Amber
CVE-ID: N/A
CWE-ID: CWE-321
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vendor: Cisco Systems, Inc
Affected software:
cjose
cjose
Detailed vulnerability description
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to disclose plaintext and modify protected content.
The vulnerability exists due to use of a hard-coded cryptographic key in JWE encryption in src/jwe.c when encrypting a JWE with an AES-CBC-HMAC content-encryption algorithm together with a key-management algorithm that generates a fresh CEK. A remote attacker can obtain a produced JWE and decrypt or forge its contents to disclose plaintext and modify protected content.
This affects only JWEs produced by the vulnerable encryption path; the issue does not affect the decryption path.
Remediation
Install security update from vendor's website.