Medium

pubnub Insufficient Entropy vulnerability

  • Disclosed: 06.12.2023
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 13:18

Versions of the package pubnub before 7.4.0; all versions of the package com.pubnub:pubnub; versions of the package pubnub before 6.19.0; all versions of the package github.com/pubnub/go; versions of the package github.com/pubnub/go/v7 before 7.2.0; versions of the package pubnub before 7.3.0; versions of the package pubnub/pubnub before 6.1.0; versions of the package pubnub before 5.3.0; versions of the package pubnub before 0.4.0; versions of the package pubnub/c-core before 4.5.0; versions of the package com.pubnub:pubnub-kotlin before 7.7.0; versions of the package pubnub/swift before 6.2.0; versions of the package pubnub before 5.2.0; versions of the package pubnub before 4.3.0 are vulnerable to Insufficient Entropy via the getKey function, due to inefficient implementation of the AES-256-CBC cryptographic algorithm. The provided encrypt function is less secure when hex encoding and trimming are applied, leaving half of the bits in the key always the same for every encoded message or file.

Note:

In order to exploit this vulnerability, the attacker needs to invest resources in preparing the attack and brute-force the encryption.

Affected software

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PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Composer package pubnub/pubnub < 6.1.0 6.1.0
Java / Kotlin (Maven) com.pubnub:pubnub <= 4.6.5 no fix
Java / Kotlin (Maven) com.pubnub:pubnub-kotlin < 7.7.0 7.7.0
npm package pubnub < 7.4.0 7.4.0
.NET (NuGet) Pubnub < 6.19.0 6.19.0
Python (PyPI) pubnub < 7.3.0 7.3.0

References

CVSS score 5.9/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-331
Platform
Composer, Java / Kotlin (Maven), npm, .NET (NuGet), Python (PyPI)
Package
pubnub/pubnub, com.pubnub:pubnub, com.pubnub:pubnub-kotlin
Disclosed
06.12.2023
Updated
11.10.2026 13:18

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-5844-q3fc-56rh - CC BY 4.0

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - PYSEC-2026-1807 - PyPA Advisory Database; CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: pubnub

All published vulnerabilities of this package (npm package), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

This is the only known vulnerability of this package.

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