GHSA-xw5c-jc7x-gf75 — pac4j-core
MEDIUMGHSA-xw5c-jc7x-gf75 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in org.pac4j:pac4j-core. A fix is available for org.pac4j:pac4j-core — see the affected versions and patch details below.
PAC4J has a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) Vulnerability
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-xw5c-jc7x-gf75.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-xw5c-jc7x-gf75 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,567 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
org.pac4j:pac4j-core☕org.pac4j:pac4j-coreReal-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
PAC4J is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF). A malicious attacker can craft a specially designed website which, when visited by a user, will automatically submit a forged cross-site request with a token whose hash collides with the victim's legitimate CSRF token. Importantly, the attacker does not need to know the victim’s CSRF token or its hash prior to the attack. Collisions in the deterministic String.hashCode() function can be computed directly, reducing the effective token's security space to 32 bits. This bypasses CSRF protection, allowing profile updates, password changes, account linking, and any other state-changing operations to be performed without the victim's consent.
This issue was fixed in PAC4J versions 5.7.10 and 6.4.1.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.pac4j:pac4j-core | all versions | 5.7.10org.pac4j:pac4j-core:5.7.10 |
| ☕Maven | org.pac4j:pac4j-core | ≥ 6.0.0-RC1&&< 6.4.1 | 6.4.1org.pac4j:pac4j-core:6.4.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.pac4j:pac4j-core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.pac4j:pac4j-core to 5.7.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-xw5c-jc7x-gf75 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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-xw5c-jc7x-gf75 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-xw5c-jc7x-gf75. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-xw5c-jc7x-gf75 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-xw5c-jc7x-gf75 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.