CVE-2020-26160 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Improper Authentication vulnerability in github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2020-26160 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Authorization bypass in github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go
Real-World Exposure
github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go🐹github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go/v4Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
jwt-go before 4.0.0-preview1 allows attackers to bypass intended access restrictions in situations with []string{} for m["aud"] (which is allowed by the specification). Because the type assertion fails, "" is the value of aud. This is a security problem if the JWT token is presented to a service that lacks its own audience check.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go | ≥ 0.0.0-20150717181359-44718f8a89b0 | No fix |
| 🐹Go | github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go/v4 | all versions | 4.0.0-preview1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
No patched version of github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go has shipped for CVE-2020-26160 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2020-26160 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2020-26160. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
The github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go module is an indirect dependency of the k8s.io/client-go module pulled into Quay Bridge, and Setup operators via the Operator's SDK generated code. The k8s.io/client-go module does not use jwt-go in an unsafe way [1]. Red Hat Quay components have been marked as wontfix. This may be…
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-26160 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2020-26160 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.