CVE-2021-21411 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.5) CWE-863 vulnerability in github.com/oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy/v7. A fix is available for github.com/oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy/v7 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OAuth2-Proxy's `--gitlab-group` GitLab Group Authorization config flag stopped working in v7.0.0
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
github.com/oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy/v7Real-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
OAuth2-Proxy is an open source reverse proxy that provides authentication with Google, Github or other providers. The --gitlab-group flag for group-based authorization in the GitLab provider stopped working in the v7.0.0 release. Regardless of the flag settings, authorization wasn't restricted. Additionally, any authenticated users had whichever groups were set in --gitlab-group added to the new X-Forwarded-Groups header to the upstream application. While adding GitLab project based authorization support in #630, a bug was introduced where the user session's groups field was populated with the --gitlab-group config entries instead of pulling the individual user's group membership from the GitLab Userinfo endpoint. When the session groups where compared against the allowed groups for authorization, they matched improperly (since both lists were populated with the same data) so authorization was allowed. This impacts GitLab Provider users who relies on group membership for authorization restrictions. Any authenticated users in your GitLab environment can access your applications regardless of --gitlab-group membership restrictions. This is patched in v7.1.0. There is no workaround for the Group membership bug. But --gitlab-project can be set to use Project membership as the authorization checks instead of groups; it is not broken.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy/v7 | all versions | 7.1.0go get github.com/oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy/v7@v7.1.0 |
Affected Products
oauth2 proxyoauth2_proxy_projectDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy/v7, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy/v7 to 7.1.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-21411 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-21411 in your dependencies?
Find it across Go, including transitive dependencies.