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Security advisory (GHSA-8cf7-32gw-wr33) clarification for symmetric algorithm types

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#869 2 comments 3 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
30/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Needs clarification
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
javascript, node.js

Research direction

Start by reading advisory GHSA-8cf7-32gw-wr33 and the CVE-2022-23539 conditions described in the issue. Confirm whether symmetric algorithms such as HS256 are affected, then clarify the advisory so its affected combinations and algorithm requirements are unambiguous.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

The recent advisory https://github.com/auth0/node-jsonwebtoken/security/advisories/GHSA-8cf7-32gw-wr33 makes it appear that only asymmetric algorithms are secure in v.8.5.1 in the sense that if one's using symmetric algorithms like HS256 you are "affected" by the vulnerability since HS256 is not listed in the tables.

Key type algorithm
ec ES256, ES384, ES512
rsa RS256, RS384, RS512, PS256, PS384, PS512
rsa-pss PS256, PS384, PS512
alg Curve
ES256 prime256v1
ES384 secp384r1
ES512 secp521r1

But for CVE-2022-23539, isn't it true that you are affected only if BOTH of these conditions are true?

  1. Using asymmetric algorithm <--- missing?
  2. Using combinations other than what's listed...
Dominant language
JavaScript
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