GHSA-gmhf-gg8w-jw42 — signxml
Fix: XML-Security/signxml@1b501faGHSA-gmhf-gg8w-jw42 is a CWE-208 vulnerability in signxml. A fix is available for signxml — see the affected versions and patch details below.
SignXML's signature verification with HMAC is vulnerable to a timing attack
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-gmhf-gg8w-jw42.
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.
Real-World Exposure
signxmlReal-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
When verifying signatures with X509 certificate validation turned off and HMAC shared secret set (signxml.XMLVerifier.verify(require_x509=False, hmac_key=...), prior versions of SignXML are vulnerable to a potential timing attack. The verifier may leak information about the correct HMAC when comparing it with the user supplied hash, allowing users to reconstruct the correct HMAC for any data.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | signxml | all versions | 4.0.4pip install --upgrade 'signxml==4.0.4' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for signxml, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update signxml to 4.0.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-gmhf-gg8w-jw42 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 GHSA-gmhf-gg8w-jw42 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-gmhf-gg8w-jw42. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-gmhf-gg8w-jw42 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-gmhf-gg8w-jw42 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.