CVE-2026-102266.

Disclosure summary

### Summary A service that verifies HS256 tokens using an empty oct JWK through PyJWK, including a PyJWK obtained from PyJWKSet, can therefore accept attacker-generated tokens as authenticated. PyJWT 2.13.0 rejects an empty HMAC key when it is supplied through the raw `str`/`bytes` key path, but accepts the same zero-length key when it is supplied as a symmetric `PyJWK`. An `oct` JWK containing an empty Base64URL key value: ```json {"kty":"oct","k":""} ``` is decoded to `b""`. During signature verification, the `PyJWK` path uses this decoded value directly and does not invoke the empty-key validation in `HMACAlgorithm.prepare_key`. With the default `enforce_minimum_key_length=False`, PyJWT emits a warning and proceeds with HMAC verification using the zero-length key. An attacker can independently calculate `HMAC-SHA256(b"", signing_input)` and create valid HS256 JWTs with arbitrary claims. A service that verifies HS256 tokens using an empty `oct` JWK through `PyJWK` or `PyJWKSet` can therefore accept attacker-generated tokens as authenticated. The application must already contain an empty HMAC JWK, for example because a missing Base64URL configuration or secret-manager value was se

Source-specific records & product guidance

Sources retain their own attribution and scoring. Follow the original record to confirm affected versions, fixed releases, and configuration conditions.

Original records & references

• NIST NVD record
• CVE Program record
• github.com — Reviewed advisory

PUBLISHED 2026-09-29T19:43:19-04:00
MODIFIED 2026-09-29T19:43:20-04:00
INGESTED 2026-10-06T11:43:09-04:00