PowAssent is susceptible to denial of service attacks
Priority LOW 31CWE-400Published · Updated
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub. Impact type from CWE-400.
Summary
The use of `String.to_atom/1` in PowAssent is susceptible to denial of service attacks. In `PowAssent.Phoenix.AuthorizationController` a value is fetched from the user provided params, and `String.to_atom/1` is used to convert the binary value to an atom so it can be used to fetch the provider configuration value. This is unsafe as it is user provided data, and can be used to fill up the whole atom table of ~1M which will cause the app to crash.
Why it matters now
EPSS 0.01082 65th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Fixed pow_assent (pow-auth): 0.4.4pow_assent (Hex): 0.4.4
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pow-auth | pow_assent | < 0.4.4 to before 0.4.4 | 0.4.4 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | pow_assent (Hex) | before 0.4.4 | 0.4.4 | Patch available | GHSA-5653-437f-5hmc |
- pow_assent Vendorpow-auth Affected < 0.4.4 to before 0.4.4 Fixed in 0.4.4 Patch available CNA
- pow_assent (Hex) Vendor— Affected before 0.4.4 Fixed in 0.4.4 Patch available GHSA-5653-437f-5hmc
Remediation
- Fix · CNA pow_assent (pow-auth) Fixed in 0.4.4
- Fix · GHSA-5653-437f-5hmc pow_assent (Hex) Fixed in 0.4.4 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2019-16764
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-5653-437f-5hmc
References
Advisory 2
Sources
- CVE-2019-16764 · CVE Program
- CVE-2019-16764 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-5653-437f-5hmc · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
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