CPU exhaustion via unbounded PBES2 iteration count
Published Mar 20, 2024 · Updated Nov 4, 2025
Denial of service in Latchset José 11 allows remote attackers to exhaust CPU resources via a JWE with an excessive PBES2 p2c value. The PBES2 unwrap path in lib/openssl/pbes2.c passes the header-controlled iteration count to PBKDF2 without enforcing an upper bound. Any application that decrypts attacker-supplied JWE data with a PBES2 algorithm can have its processing capacity consumed until the operation is stopped.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in Latchset José 11 allows remote attackers to exhaust CPU resources via a JWE with an excessive PBES2 p2c value. The PBES2 unwrap path in lib/openssl/pbes2.c passes the header-controlled iteration count to PBKDF2 without enforcing an upper bound. Any application that decrypts attacker-supplied JWE data with a PBES2 algorithm can have its processing capacity consumed until the operation is stopped.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-50967
- Published
- Mar 20, 2024
- Updated
- Nov 4, 2025
- Vendor
- Latchset
- Product
- José
- Classifications
- CWE-400, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 20, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Nov 4, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=11
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Latchset José p2c denial-of-service proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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