LibJWT is a C JSON Web Token Library. From 3.0.0 to 3.3.2, libjwt accepts an RSA JWK that does not contain an alg parameter as the verification key for an HS256/HS384/HS512 token. In the OpenSSL backend, this causes HMAC verification to run with a zero-length key, so an attacker can forge a valid JWT without knowing any secret or RSA private key. This is an algorithm-confusion authentication bypass. It affects applications that load RSA keys from JWKS where alg is omitted, which is valid JWK syntax and common in real deployments, and then choose the verification algorithm from the JWT header, for example in a kid lookup callback. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.3.3.

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Fri, 15 May 2026 16:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description LibJWT is a C JSON Web Token Library. From 3.0.0 to 3.3.2, libjwt accepts an RSA JWK that does not contain an alg parameter as the verification key for an HS256/HS384/HS512 token. In the OpenSSL backend, this causes HMAC verification to run with a zero-length key, so an attacker can forge a valid JWT without knowing any secret or RSA private key. This is an algorithm-confusion authentication bypass. It affects applications that load RSA keys from JWKS where alg is omitted, which is valid JWK syntax and common in real deployments, and then choose the verification algorithm from the JWT header, for example in a kid lookup callback. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.3.3.
Title LibJWT: Algorithm confusion allows JWT forgery with RSA JWK as empty-key HMAC
Weaknesses CWE-327
CWE-347
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 9.1, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}


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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published:

Updated: 2026-05-15T16:08:34.405Z

Reserved: 2026-05-07T17:07:09.316Z

Link: CVE-2026-44699

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-05-15T17:16:47.783

Modified: 2026-05-15T17:16:47.783

Link: CVE-2026-44699

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-05-15T17:30:04Z

Weaknesses