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SCA: security update for json-web-token (GHSA-4xw9-cx39-r355)

high Tenable Cloud Security Plugin ID 476190

Description

There are packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability referenced in the following CVE:

 - joaquimserafim/json-web-token is a javascript library use to interact with JSON Web Tokens (JWT) which are
 a compact URL-safe means of representing claims to be transferred between two parties. Versions prior to
 4.0.0 are vulnerable to a JWT algorithm confusion attack. On line 86 of the 'index.js' file, the algorithm
 to use for verifying the signature of the JWT token is taken from the JWT token, which at that point is
 still unverified and thus shouldn't be trusted. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker needs to craft
 a malicious JWT token containing the HS256 algorithm, signed with the public RSA key of the victim
 application. This attack will only work against this library is the RS256 algorithm is in use, however it
 is a best practice to use that algorithm. Version 4.0.0 fixes the issue. (CVE-2023-48238)

Solution

Update the json-web-token library and its related packages to version 4.0.0 or later.

See Also

https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-4xw9-cx39-r355

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 476190

Version: Revision 1.1

Type: Local

Family: SCA Checks

Published: 10/19/2026

Updated: 10/19/2026

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3

Percentile: 23.51

Vendor

Vendor Severity: High

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.1

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:C/A:N

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2023-48238

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.7

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 11/17/2023

Vulnerability Publication Date: 11/17/2023

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2023-48238