GHSA-c32j-vqhx-rx3x
ruby-jwt: Empty-key HMAC bypass; cross-language sibling of CVE-2026-44351
Quick fix
GHSA-c32j-vqhx-rx3x — jwt: upgrade to the fixed version with the command below.
bundle update jwtDetails
`JWT.decode(token, '', true, algorithm: 'HS256')` accepts an attacker-forged token. `OpenSSL::HMAC.digest('SHA256', '', payload)` returns a valid digest under an empty key, and no `raise InvalidKeyError if key.empty?` precondition exists in the HMAC algorithm.
``` JWT.decode(token, "", true, algorithm: 'HS256') -> JWA::Hmac.verify(verification_key: "", ...) -> OpenSSL::HMAC.digest('SHA256', "", signing_input) == signature ```
The same path is reached when a keyfinder block or key_finder: argument returns "", nil, or an array containing nil for an unknown key. JWT::Decode#find_key only rejects literal nil and empty arrays, and JWT::JWA::Hmac silently coerces nil to "" (signing_key ||= '') before signing.
``` JWT.decode(token, nil, true, algorithms: ['HS256']) { |_h| "" } -> find_key returns "" # "" && !Array("").empty? == true -> JWA::Hmac.verify(verification_key: "", ...) -> verifies ``` Common application patterns that produce the unsafe value: `redis.get("kid:#{kid}").to_s`, ORM string columns with `default: ''`, `ENV['SECRET'] || '', Hash.new('')` lookups, [primary, fallback] where fallback may be nil. Applications passing a non-empty static key:, or whose keyfinder returns nil / raises on miss, are not affected.
The existing `enforce_hmac_key_length` option would block this but defaults to false. On OpenSSL ≥ 3.5 the empty-key HMAC.digest call no longer raises, so the OpenSSL-3.0 rescue in JWA::Hmac#sign does not fire.
Affects HS256/HS384/HS512 via both JWT.decode (positional key and block keyfinder) and `JWT::EncodedToken#verify_signature!(key_finder:)`
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Affected packages
References
- https://github.com/jwt/ruby-jwt/security/advisories/GHSA-c32j-vqhx-rx3x[WEB]
- https://github.com/jwt/ruby-jwt/issues/724[WEB]
- https://github.com/jwt/ruby-jwt/commit/db560b769a07bd9724e77ff505011ac01872106f[WEB]
- https://github.com/jwt/ruby-jwt[PACKAGE]
- https://github.com/jwt/ruby-jwt/releases/tag/v2.10.3[WEB]
- https://github.com/jwt/ruby-jwt/releases/tag/v3.2.0[WEB]
- https://github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/jwt/CVE-2026-45363.yml[WEB]
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-45363[WEB]