{"id":"CVE-2019-16764","url":"https://www.cyber-defence.io/tools/cve/CVE-2019-16764","generatedAt":"2026-10-27T20:20:03.483Z","title":"The use of `String.to_atom/1` in PowAssent is susceptible to denial of service attacks.","description":"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.","published":"2019-11-25T17:15:12.000Z","lastModified":"2026-06-17T02:22:45.000Z","status":"Modified","sourceIdentifier":"security-advisories@github.com","cvss":{"version":"3.1","score":5.5,"severity":"MEDIUM","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"},"cwe":["CWE-400"],"affected":["powauth/powassent"],"epss":{"score":0.01082,"percentile":0.64943,"date":"2026-10-26","history":[]},"kev":{"listed":false},"exploits":{"count":0,"verified":false,"firstPublished":null,"source":"Exploit-DB (https://gitlab.com/exploit-database/exploitdb)","entries":[]},"verdict":{"level":"low","text":"Lower severity and a low EPSS score (1.08%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own."},"changes":[],"references":[{"url":"http://erlang.org/doc/efficiency_guide/commoncaveats.html#list_to_atom-1","tags":["Product"],"source":"security-advisories@github.com"},{"url":"https://github.com/pow-auth/pow_assent/commit/026105eeecc0e3c2f807e7109e745ea93c0fd9cf","tags":["Patch"],"source":"security-advisories@github.com"},{"url":"https://github.com/pow-auth/pow_assent/security/advisories/GHSA-368c-xvrv-x986","tags":["Third Party Advisory"],"source":"security-advisories@github.com"},{"url":"https://hex.pm/packages/pow_assent","tags":["Release Notes"],"source":"security-advisories@github.com"},{"url":"http://erlang.org/doc/efficiency_guide/commoncaveats.html#list_to_atom-1","tags":["Product"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://github.com/pow-auth/pow_assent/commit/026105eeecc0e3c2f807e7109e745ea93c0fd9cf","tags":["Patch"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://github.com/pow-auth/pow_assent/security/advisories/GHSA-368c-xvrv-x986","tags":["Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://hex.pm/packages/pow_assent","tags":["Release Notes"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"}],"sources":{"nvd":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-16764","epss":"https://www.first.org/epss/","kev":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","exploitdb":"https://www.exploit-db.com/"},"licence":"CC BY 4.0 — link back to the CVE Explorer if you publish the results; upstream data remains subject to its own terms."}