What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2022-23540: jsonwebtoken vulnerable to signature validation bypass due to insecure default algorithm in jwt.verify()

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.6 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2022-12-22 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-287

Description

In versions `<=8.5.1` of `jsonwebtoken` library, lack of algorithm definition in the `jwt.verify()` function can lead to signature validation bypass due to defaulting to the `none` algorithm for signature verification. Users are affected if you do not specify algorithms in the `jwt.verify()` function. This issue has been fixed, please update to version 9.0.0 which removes the default support for the none algorithm in the `jwt.verify()` method. There will be no impact, if you update to version 9.0.0 and you don’t need to allow for the `none` algorithm. If you need 'none' algorithm, you have to explicitly specify that in `jwt.verify()` options.

Affected products

• auth0 node-jsonwebtoken: through 8.5.1
• Npm Jsonwebtoken: before 9.0.0 — fixed in 9.0.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Npm Jsonwebtoken 9.0.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/auth0/node-jsonwebtoken/commit/e1fa9dcc12054a8681db4e6373da1b30cf7016e3
• https://github.com/auth0/node-jsonwebtoken/security/advisories/GHSA-qwph-4952-7xr6
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20240621-0007/
• https://github.com/auth0/node-jsonwebtoken/commit/e1fa9dcc12054a8681db4e6373da1b30cf7016e3
• https://github.com/auth0/node-jsonwebtoken/security/advisories/GHSA-qwph-4952-7xr6
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20240621-0007/

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