CVE-2026-44699 CRITICAL

CVE-2026-44699: LibJWT: Algorithm confusion allows JWT forgery with RSA JWK as empty-key HMAC

Vendor Benmcollins
Product libjwt
Weakness CWE-327 · Broken crypto
Published May 15, 2026
Last update May 15, 2026

CVSS base score

9.1/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction None
Confidentiality
Integrity

CVSS 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

What the vulnerability does

01Description

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.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

May 15, 2026 CVE published
May 15, 2026 Record updated