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pbkdf2 rehashes long passwords on every iteration, enabling denial of service

Type: advisorySource: Official CVE List1 source record

pbkdf2 through 3.1.6 re-hashes passwords longer than the digest's block size on every iteration in its JavaScript fallback (lib/sync.js). A password longer than the block size (64 bytes, or 128 bytes for sha384 and sha512) is passed to HMAC as the key on every iteration, and HMAC hashes such keys in full each time. Cost is therefore O(iterations × password length), and a long password can block the event loop. The fallback is used by pbkdf2Sync and pbkdf2 on Node.js before 0.12, on Bun (1.0.0 through 1.1.34, and 1.2.6 and later), and on Deno 2.9.0 and later, because their native pbkdf2Sync fails the library's feature check. It is also used when lib/sync.js is imported directly. Node.js 0.12 and later, and browser builds (which use lib/sync-browser.js), are not affected. Applications that enforce a reasonable maximum password length are not meaningfully affected.

Announced Source revision 1
Original source ↗

CVE-2026-102414

Primary source · Revision 1

Imported from structured advisory data. Source references identify upstream records or fields; verify affected versions and your deployed configuration.

Security context

Source reference: cve:CVE-2026-102414

pbkdf2

Source reference: /containers/cna/affected/0/product

Affected versions
Not stated in this record
Fixed versions
Not stated in this record
Prerequisites
Not stated in this record

Structured affected-version data

Original package identities and version rules from this source.

[
  {
    "repo": "https://github.com/browserify/pbkdf2",
    "vendor": "browserify",
    "product": "pbkdf2",
    "versions": [
      {
        "status": "affected",
        "version": "0",
        "versionType": "semver",
        "lessThanOrEqual": "3.1.6"
      }
    ],
    "packageName": "pbkdf2",
    "programFiles": [
      "lib/sync.js"
    ],
    "collectionURL": "https://www.npmjs.com",
    "defaultStatus": "unaffected",
    "programRoutines": [
      {
        "name": "pbkdf2Sync"
      },
      {
        "name": "pbkdf2"
      }
    ]
  }
]
Related CVEs
CVE-2026-102414

Source reference: /cveMetadata/cveId

Publisher severity

medium

Source reference: /containers/cna/metrics

Event
#4461 · Revision 1
Added to Heist Feed
Publisher date
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