Decompression bomb via unbounded zlib:inflate in jose_jwe_zip:uncompress/2
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2026-65627 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | EEF |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2026-10-26 20:17:58 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-10-26 20:17:58 UTC |
| Description | Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) vulnerability in potatosalad jose (erlang-jose) allows a remote attacker to exhaust a node's memory with a small crafted JWE token. The jose_jwe_zip:uncompress/2 function in src/jwe/jose_jwe_zip.erl decompresses the DEFLATE-compressed plaintext of a JWE that carries the optional zip: DEF header by calling zlib:inflate/2 on the entire attacker-controlled stream, with no bound on the output size or the inflation ratio. Raw DEFLATE reaches ratios around 1000:1 on highly repetitive input, so a few-kilobyte token inflates to hundreds of megabytes or gigabytes in a single call. Decompression runs automatically during decryption through jose_jwe:block_decrypt/2 (JOSE.JWE.block_decrypt/2 in Elixir), before the recipient can inspect or reject the payload. With the common asymmetric key-management algorithms (RSA-OAEP, ECDH-ES) an attacker needs only the recipient's public key to craft such a token, so no authentication or secret material is required. A single small token can exhaust the node's memory and crash the BEAM, denying service to all users. This issue affects jose: from 1.0.0 before 1.11.13. |
Risk And Classification
Primary CVSS: v4.0 6.9 MEDIUM from 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Problem Types: CWE-409 | CWE-409 CWE-409 Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification)
| Version | Source | Type | Score | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | Secondary | 6.9 | MEDIUM | CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/C... |
| 4.0 | CNA | CVSS | 6.9 | MEDIUM | CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |
CVSS v4.0 Breakdown
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Vendor Declared Affected Products
| Source | Vendor | Product | Version | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | Potatosalad | Jose | affected 1.0.0 1.11.13 semver | Not specified |
| CNA | Potatosalad | Jose | affected a7746ecd4950f85a393136e449a91dac62b5c429 857eb8e7f2d33e2c9ca2189e77226561cacaf2ad git | Not specified |
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-65627 | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | osv.dev | |
| github.com/potatosalad/erlang-jose/commit/857eb8e7f2d33e2c9ca2189e772265... | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | github.com | |
| github.com/potatosalad/erlang-jose/security/advisories/GHSA-wfpv-qxp8-x5gm | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | github.com | |
| github.com/potatosalad/erlang-jose/commit/a7746ecd4950f85a393136e449a91d... | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | github.com | |
| cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-65627.html | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | cna.erlef.org | |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
Vendor Comments And Credit
Discovery Credit
CNA: Peter Ullrich (en)
CNA: Andrew Bennett (en)
CNA: Jonatan Männchen / EEF (en)
Additional Advisory Data
Workarounds
CNA: Reject JWE tokens that carry a zip header before passing them to jose_jwe:block_decrypt/2. DEFLATE compression is rarely used in legitimate JWE traffic, so untrusted tokens whose protected header contains zip: DEF can be inspected and filtered out before decryption.