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CVE-2023-46133

crypto-es PBKDF2 1,000 times weaker than specified in 1993 and 1.3M times weaker than current standard

CVSS 9.1 CRITICALEPSS 0.4%CWE-328CWE-916
In short

CryptoES's password-hashing function (PBKDF2) is dangerously weak by default because it uses only 1 iteration instead of thousands and relies on an outdated, broken algorithm (SHA1). This makes passwords and digital signatures created with this library extremely vulnerable to being cracked by attackers.

Technical detail

CryptoES PBKDF2 defaults to SHA1 (cryptographically broken since 2005) with a single iteration, resulting in a strength reduction of 1,000× relative to 1993 specifications and 1.3M× versus current standards. The weak iteration count (1 vs. 250,000+) and insecure hash function severely degrade resistance to preimage and collision attacks, critically impacting password storage and signature generation security.

Summary generated and translated by AI from the official description.
CryptoES is a cryptography algorithms library compatible with ES6 and TypeScript. Prior to version 2.1.0, CryptoES PBKDF2 is 1,000 times weaker than originally specified in 1993, and at least 1,300,000 times weaker than current industry standard. This is because it both defaults to SHA1, a cryptographic hash algorithm considered insecure since at least 2005, and defaults to one single iteration, a 'strength' or 'difficulty' value specified at 1,000 when specified in 1993. PBKDF2 relies on iteration count as a countermeasure to preimage and collision attacks. If used to protect passwords, the impact is high. If used to generate signatures, the impact is high. Version 2.1.0 contains a patch for this issue. As a workaround, configure CryptoES to use SHA256 with at least 250,000 iterations.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Affected products
entronad · crypto-es

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References
https://github.com/entronad/crypto-es/commit/d506677fae3d03a454b37ad126e0c119d416b757https://github.com/entronad/crypto-es/security/advisories/GHSA-mpj8-q39x-wq5h