Bug 2530243 (CVE-2026-53939)

Summary: CVE-2026-53939 cjose: OpenIDC/cjose uses all-zero Content Encryption Key for AES-CBC-HMAC JWE encryption
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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Priority: urgent    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in cjose. When encrypting a JSON Web Encryption (JWE) object using AES-CBC-HMAC algorithms, the library initializes the encryption key with all-zero bytes instead of generating a secure random key. As a result, an attacker who intercepts the encrypted message can decrypt sensitive plaintext and alter or forge content, leading to information disclosure and loss of data integrity.
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Bug Depends On: 2546575    
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-08 23:41:30 UTC
OpenIDC/cjose is a C library implementing the Javascript Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE). In versions 0.6.1 through 0.6.2.5, when cjose encrypts a JWE using an AES-CBC-HMAC content-encryption algorithm (`A128CBC-HS256`, `A192CBC-HS384`, or `A256CBC-HS512`) together with any key-management algorithm that generates a fresh content-encryption key (CEK), the CEK is all zero bytes instead of being randomly generated. The resulting JWE is therefore encrypted and authenticated under a fixed, publicly known key, so anyone who obtains the JWE can recover the plaintext and forge or modify the content. This is fixed in version 0.6.2.6 by `_cjose_jwe_set_cek_aes_cbc()` generating the CEK from `RAND_bytes`. A regression test asserts that the `encrypted_key` differs across two encryptions for each AES-CBC-HMAC variant. Until upgrading, for data encrypted with cjose, three options are available. Use an AES-GCM `enc` (`A128GCM` / `A192GCM` / `A256GCM`) instead of an AES-CBC-HMAC `enc`,  use `alg=dir` with a caller-supplied CEK, or avoid using cjose for JWE encryption with the affected algorithm pair. These are mitigations for new ciphertexts only; data already encrypted under the zero key remains compromised and should be re-encrypted (and any secrets it contained rotated).

Comment 1 Jon Orris 2026-10-12 06:03:45 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10

Via RHSA-2026:80605 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:80605