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.
CVE-2019-16764
This medium-severity CVE scores 6.5 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 0.4%, top 37% of all CVEs by exploit prediction. GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).
- Lower severity and no public exploit yet
No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.
- CVSS v3
- 6.5
- EG Score
- 6.5(medium)
- EPSS
- 61.3%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
November 25, 2019
Last Modified
November 21, 2024
References (8)
- security-advisories@githubhttp://erlang.org/doc/efficiency_guide/commoncaveats.html#list_to_atom-1
- security-advisories@githubhttps://github.com/pow-auth/pow_assent/commit/026105eeecc0e3c2f807e7109e745ea93c0fd9cf
- security-advisories@githubhttps://github.com/pow-auth/pow_assent/security/advisories/GHSA-368c-xvrv-x986
- security-advisories@githubhttps://hex.pm/packages/pow_assent
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://erlang.org/doc/efficiency_guide/commoncaveats.html#list_to_atom-1
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/pow-auth/pow_assent/commit/026105eeecc0e3c2f807e7109e745ea93c0fd9cf
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/pow-auth/pow_assent/security/advisories/GHSA-368c-xvrv-x986
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://hex.pm/packages/pow_assent
Affected Packages
(1 across 1 ecosystem)
Hex(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| pow_assent | 0.1.0 ... 0.4.3 (29 versions) | 0.4.4 | — |
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 10× in last 7d / 43× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
- 2026-07-12 05:43 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-05-27 11:12 UTCEG score recompute
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Related CVEs(same CWE)
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-400
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2019-16764?
When was CVE-2019-16764 disclosed?
Is CVE-2019-16764 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2019-16764?
How do I remediate CVE-2019-16764?
Dependency Blast Radius
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