xml-security/signxml · Security

SignXML's signature verification with HMAC is vulnerable to an algorithm confusion attack

GHSA ID
GHSA-6vx8-pcwv-xhf4
CVE ID
CVE-2025-48994
Severity
medium
Published
Updated
CVSS v4
6.9 · CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Description

When verifying signatures with X509 certificate validation turned off and HMAC shared secret set (signxml.XMLVerifier.verify(require_x509=False, hmac_key=...), prior versions of SignXML are vulnerable to a potential algorithm confusion attack. Unless the user explicitly limits the expected signature algorithms using the signxml.XMLVerifier.verify(expect_config=...) setting, an attacker may supply a signature unexpectedly signed with a key other than the provided HMAC key, using a different (asymmetric key) signature algorithm.

Starting with signxml 4.0.4, specifying hmac_key causes the set of accepted signature algorithms to be restricted to HMAC only, if not already restricted by the user.

CWEs

References