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PyJWT: Public keys in DER form are accepted as HMAC secrets, bypassing the CVE-2022-29217 guard

Type: advisorySource: OSV1 source record

### Summary `HMACAlgorithm.prepare_key` blocks asymmetric keys from being used as HMAC secrets by searching for text markers only. It looks for `-----BEGIN` and for an `ssh-` prefix. The same key in DER form is binary ASN.1 and has neither marker, so it passes the check and is used as an HMAC secret. An application that verifies tokens with an RSA or EC public key, and also allows HS256 with that same key, can be given a forged token. The attacker signs it with the public key, which is public. This is the key confusion problem CVE-2022-29217 was filed for, reachable again through a different encoding. The reach is smaller than the original CVE. The application must already be in that misconfiguration, and it must hold its public key as DER bytes rather than PEM. ### Details The guard is at `jwt/algorithms.py:331`: ```python if is_pem_format(key_bytes) or is_ssh_key(key_bytes): raise InvalidKeyError( "The specified key is an asymmetric key or x509 certificate and" " should not be used as an HMAC secret." ) ``` Both helpers are text matchers. Neither one parses the key. - `jwt/utils.py:126`, `is_pem_format`, runs a regex for `----[- ]BEGIN ...----`. - `jwt/utils.py:141`, `is_ssh_key`, checks `startswith` against a list of `ssh-` and `ecdsa-sha2-` prefixes. A DER encoded public key starts with the bytes `0x30 0x82`. It matches neither, so `prepare_key` returns it unchanged and it becomes the HMAC secret. There is no DER handling anywhere in the package. `grep -rni "\bDER\b|load_

Announced Source revision 1
Original source ↗

PYSEC-2026-4149

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: osv:PYSEC-2026-4149

pyjwt

Source reference: /affected/0/package/name

Affected versions
2.10.0

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2.10.1

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2.11.0

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2.12.0

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2.12.1

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2.13.0

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2.4.0

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2.5.0

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2.6.0

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2.7.0

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2.8.0

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2.9.0

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Fixed versions
2.14.0

Source reference: /affected/0/ranges

Prerequisites
Not stated in this record

Structured affected-version data

Original package identities and version rules from this source.

[
  {
    "ranges": [
      {
        "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
        "events": [
          {
            "introduced": "2.4.0"
          },
          {
            "fixed": "2.14.0"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "package": {
      "name": "pyjwt",
      "purl": "pkg:pypi/pyjwt",
      "ecosystem": "PyPI"
    },
    "versions": [
      "2.10.0",
      "2.10.1",
      "2.11.0",
      "2.12.0",
      "2.12.1",
      "2.13.0",
      "2.4.0",
      "2.5.0",
      "2.6.0",
      "2.7.0",
      "2.8.0",
      "2.9.0"
    ],
    "database_specific": {
      "source": "https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/blob/main/vulns/pyjwt/PYSEC-2026-4149.yaml"
    }
  }
]
Related CVEs
CVE-2026-102271

Source reference: /aliases

Publisher severity

No explicit severity was provided.

Linked CVE context

These ratings describe the referenced vulnerabilities and products. They are not a severity rating for every application using this dependency.

Event
#62509 · Revision 1
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