CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2025-61152 — python-jose thru 3.3.0 allows JWT tokens with 'alg=none' to be decoded and accepted without any cryptographic signature verification

Medium CVSS 6.5

python-jose thru 3.3.0 allows JWT tokens with 'alg=none' to be decoded and accepted without any cryptographic signature verification. A malicious actor can craft a forged token with arbitrary claims (e.g., is_admin=true) and bypass authentication checks, leading to privilege escalation or unauthorized access in applications that rely on python-jose for token validation. This issue is exploitable unless developers explicitly reject 'alg=none' tokens, which is not enforced by the library. NOTE: all parties agree that the issue is not relevant because it only occurs in a "verify_signature": False situation.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.5 (3.1)
Published
2025-10-10
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
python/pypi
Weaknesses
CWE-269

Affected products

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Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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