CVE-2024-28102 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.8) CWE-770 vulnerability in jwcrypto. A fix is available for jwcrypto — see the affected versions and patch details below.
JWCrypto vulnerable to JWT bomb Attack in `deserialize` function
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-28102.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-28102 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,166 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
jwcryptoReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
JWCrypto implements JWK, JWS, and JWE specifications using python-cryptography. Prior to version 1.5.6, an attacker can cause a denial of service attack by passing in a malicious JWE Token with a high compression ratio. When the server processes this token, it will consume a lot of memory and processing time. Version 1.5.6 fixes this vulnerability by limiting the maximum token length.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | jwcrypto | all versions | 1.5.6pip install --upgrade 'jwcrypto==1.5.6' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for jwcrypto, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update jwcrypto to 1.5.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-28102 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2024-28102 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-28102. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
The CVE-2024-28102 vulnerability in JWCrypto represents a moderate severity issue due to its potential impact on system availability and resource consumption. While the vulnerability allows for a denial of service (DoS) attack, it requires an attacker to craft a malicious JWE Token with a high compression ratio. This…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.4 for RHEL 8 | automation-controller-0:4.5.8-1.el8ap | RHSA-2024:4522 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | idm:client-8100020240417004735.143e9e98 | RHSA-2024:3267 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | python-jwcrypto-0:0.8-5.el9_4 | RHSA-2024:2559 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-28102 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-28102 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.