How severe is GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq?

GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq has a CVSS score of 6.4/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq?

GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq affects the following packages: aws-cdk (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq?

Update aws-cdk to 2.148.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq in my npm dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for aws-cdk. 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.

How do I mitigate GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq?

O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq 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 GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq?

GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.3%, placing it in the 23th 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 GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq?

GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq 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 GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq was published on August 27, 2024 and was last updated on August 28, 2024. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

📦 npm

GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq

MEDIUM

AWS CDK RestApi not generating authorizationScope correctly in resultant CFN template

Also known asCVE-2024-45037

Published

Aug 27, 2024

Updated

Aug 28, 2024

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk23th percentile-0.22%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

📦aws-cdk

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects npm packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

Summary

The AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) is an open-source framework for defining cloud infrastructure using code. Customers use it to create their own applications which are converted to AWS CloudFormation templates during deployment to a customer’s AWS account. CDK contains pre-built components called "constructs" that are higher-level abstractions providing defaults and best practices. This approach enables developers to use familiar programming languages to define complex cloud infrastructure more efficiently than writing raw CloudFormation templates.

We identified an issue in AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) which, under certain conditions, can result in granting authenticated Amazon Cognito users broader than intended access. Specifically, if a CDK application uses the "RestApi" construct with "CognitoUserPoolAuthorizer" as the authorizer and uses authorization scopes to limit access. This issue does not affect the availability of the specific API resources.

Impact

Authenticated Cognito users may gain unintended access to protected API resources or methods, leading to potential data disclosure, and modification issues.

Impacted versions: >=2.142.0;<=2.148.0

Patches

The patch is included in CDK version >=2.148.1.

Recommended Actions

Upgrade your AWS CDK version to 2.148.1 or newer and re-deploy your application(s) to address this issue.
If you are using older CDK versions before 2.142.0, you are not affected by this issue, however it is recommended to upgrade to the latest version to receive the latest features and fixes.
Confirm whether your application(s) is affected by searching for "CognitoUserPoolsAuthorizer" in your CDK application. If it is referenced inside the "RestApi" construct, and the "RestApi" resource or method utilize authorization scopes to limit access, and you deployed your applications using the impacted versions of CDK, your application is affected.

References

AWS CDK Documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/home.html
AWS CDK RestApi Construct Documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/api/v2/docs/aws-cdk-[lib.aws](http://lib.aws/)_apigateway.RestApi.html
AWS CDK CognitoUserPoolsAuthorizer Documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/api/v2/docs/aws-cdk- lib.aws_apigateway.CognitoUserPoolsAuthorizer.html
AWS CDK v2.148.1 Release Notes: https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.148.1

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory we ask that you contact AWS/Amazon Security via our vulnerability reporting page [1] or directly via email to [email protected]. Please do not create a public GitHub issue.

[1] Vulnerability reporting page: https://aws.amazon.com/security/vulnerability-reporting

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`aws-cdk`	≥ 2.142.0&&< 2.148.1	2.148.1

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for aws-cdk. 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
Update aws-cdk to 2.148.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
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 GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq 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 GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Summary The AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) is an open-source framework for defining cloud infrastructure using code. Customers use it to create their own applications which are converted to AWS CloudFormation templates during deployment to a customer’s AWS account. CDK contains pre-built components called "constructs" that are higher-level abstractions providing defaults and best practices. This approach enables developers to use familiar programming languages to define complex cloud infrastructure more efficiently than writing raw CloudFormation templates. We identified an issue in AWS

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq in your dependencies?

O3 detects GHSA-qj85-69xf-2vxq across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works