Issue with whitespace in JWT roles in OpenSearchGHSA-864v-6qj7-62qj
MEDIUMGHSA-864v-6qj7-62qj is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.7) Improper Authentication vulnerability in org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security. A fix is available for org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-864v-6qj7-62qj.
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
org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security☕org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-securityReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Advisory title: Issue with whitespace in JWT roles
Affected versions:
OpenSearch 1.0.0-1.3.7 and 2.0.0-2.4.1
Patched versions:
OpenSearch 1.3.8 and 2.5.0
Impact:
OpenSearch uses JWTs to store role claims obtained from the Identity Provider (IdP) when the authentication backend is SAML or OpenID Connect. There is an issue in how those claims are processed from the JWTs where the leading and trailing whitespace is trimmed, allowing users to potentially claim roles they are not assigned to if any role matches the whitespace-stripped version of the roles they are a member of.
This issue is only present for authenticated users, and it requires either the existence of roles that match, not considering leading/trailing whitespace, or the ability for users to create said matching roles. In addition, the Identity Provider must allow leading and trailing spaces in role names.
Patches:
OpenSearch versions 1.3.8 and 2.5.0 contain a fix for this issue.
For more information:
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, please contact AWS/Amazon Security via our issue reporting page (https://aws.amazon.com/security/vulnerability-reporting/) or directly via email to [email protected]. Please do not create a public GitHub issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security | all versions | 1.3.8org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security:1.3.8 |
| ☕Maven | org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security | ≥ 2.0.0&&< 2.5.0 | 2.5.0org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security:2.5.0 |
Affected Products
opensearchamazonDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security to 1.3.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-864v-6qj7-62qj 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 GHSA-864v-6qj7-62qj in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.