How severe is CVE-2021-32701?

CVE-2021-32701 has a CVSS score of 7.5/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2021-32701?

CVE-2021-32701 affects the following packages: github.com/ory/oathkeeper (Go). Ecosystems affected: Go.

How do I fix CVE-2021-32701?

Update github.com/ory/oathkeeper to 0.38.12-beta.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-32701 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2021-32701 in my Go dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/ory/oathkeeper, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2021-32701 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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.

Is CVE-2021-32701 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2021-32701 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2021-32701?

CVE-2021-32701 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 1.6%, placing it in the 76th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2021-32701?

CVE-2021-32701 is classified as CWE-863 (CWE-863). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2021-32701 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2021-32701 was published on June 22, 2021 and was last updated on October 20, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐹

🐹 Go

Not in CISA KEV

HIGH severity

CVE-2021-32701 — oathkeeper

HIGHFix: ory/oathkeeper@1f9f625

CVE-2021-32701 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-863 vulnerability in github.com/ory/oathkeeper. A fix is available for github.com/ory/oathkeeper — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Possible bypass of token claim validation when OAuth2 Introspection caching is enabled

Also known asGHSA-qvp4-rpmr-xwrr GHSA-vfvf-6gx5-mqv6GO-2022-0406GO-2022-0920

Published

Jun 22, 2021

Updated

Oct 20, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 2, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

1.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs76th percentile — riskier than 76% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

1 pkg affected

🐹github.com/ory/oathkeeper

Real-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

Impact

When you make a request to an endpoint that requires the scope foo using an access token granted with that foo scope, introspection will be valid and that token will be cached. The problem comes when a second requests to an endpoint that requires the scope bar is made before the cache has expired. Whether the token is granted or not to the bar scope, introspection will be valid.

Patches

A patch will be released with v0.38.12-beta.1.

Workarounds

Per default, caching is disabled for the oauth2_introspection authenticator. When caching is disabled, this vulnerability does not exist.

Trace

The cache is checked in func (a *AuthenticatorOAuth2Introspection) Authenticate(...). From tokenFromCache() it seems that it only validates the token expiration date, but ignores whether the token has or not the proper scopes.

Post-Mortem

The vulnerability was introduced in PR #424. During review, we failed to require appropriate test coverage by the submitter which is the primary reason that the vulnerability passed the review process.

To avoid this from happening again we enabled codecov with a strict policy on the Ory Oathkeeper repository: Without an increase in code coverage the PR can not be merged.

To address this issue and any regressions we have added a test suite ensuring that the cache behaviour is correct in the different scenarios:

Scope strategy is none, cache is enabled, and requested_scope is not empty -> cache will not be used;
Scope strategy is none, cache is enabled, and requested_scope is empty -> cache will be used;
Scope strategy is not none, cache is enabled, and requested_scope is not empty -> cache will be used;

as well as validating if iss, aud, exp, token_use, and scope are validated.

Additionally, we added CodeQL scanning to the CI.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐹Go	`github.com/ory/oathkeeper`	≥ 0.38.0-beta.2&&< 0.38.12-beta.1	0.38.12-beta.1`go get github.com/ory/oathkeeper@v0.38.12-beta.1`

Affected Products

1 product · 12 configurations

Application

oathkeeperory

12 versions

0.38.00.38.10.38.20.38.30.38.40.38.50.38.60.38.70.38.80.38.90.38.100.38.11

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/ory/oathkeeper, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/ory/oathkeeper to 0.38.12-beta.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-32701 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

### Impact When you make a request to an endpoint that requires the scope `foo` using an access token granted with that `foo` scope, introspection will be valid and that token will be cached. The problem comes when a second requests to an endpoint that requires the scope `bar` is made before the cache has expired. Whether the token is granted or not to the `bar` scope, introspection will be valid. ### Patches A patch will be released with `v0.38.12-beta.1`. ### Workarounds Per default, caching is disabled for the `oauth2_introspection` authenticator. When caching is disabled, this vulnera