GHSA-XMF8-CVQR-RFGJ

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-07-23 14:42 – Updated: 2026-08-13 19:05
VLAI
Summary
Auth.js: getToken() throws an uncaught exception on malformed Bearer authorization headers
Details

Summary

The exported getToken() helper (next-auth/jwt and @auth/core/jwt) can throw an uncaught exception when it reads a malformed Authorization: Bearer … header. When no session cookie is present, getToken() URL-decodes the bearer value before validating it, and malformed percent-encoding causes the decode step to throw rather than being treated as an invalid token. Because getToken() is commonly called in API routes, middleware, and other request handlers, a single unauthenticated request can trigger an unhandled exception in code paths that authenticate requests.

Am I affected?

You are affected if all of the following hold:

  • You use next-auth <= 5.0.0-beta.25 (or @auth/core exposing the same getToken() implementation).
  • Your application calls getToken() directly — for example in a Route Handler, middleware, or server-side request handler.
  • You do not wrap that getToken() call in your own try/catch.

You are not affected if you only use the framework's auth() helper and never call getToken() yourself, or if every getToken() call site already has its own exception handling.

Impact

  • Denial of service: an unauthenticated request carrying a malformed Bearer authorization header can raise an unhandled exception in any handler that calls getToken().
  • The impact is per-request and limited to availability; it does not expose tokens, sessions, or other data, and does not bypass authentication.

CWE-20: Improper Input Validation.

Patched version

The fix makes getToken() treat a malformed Bearer value as an invalid token and return null, matching how other undecodable tokens are already handled. Upgrade to the first release containing this fix (to be published; this advisory will be updated with the exact patched version before publication) and no code changes are required.

Workarounds

If you cannot upgrade immediately, either:

  • Config/code-level: wrap your getToken() calls so a thrown error is treated as "no token", e.g.

ts let token = null try { token = await getToken({ req, secret }) } catch { token = null }

  • Or strip/normalize the incoming Authorization header at the edge (proxy, middleware) before it reaches getToken(), rejecting values whose Bearer portion is not valid percent-encoding.

Credit

Reported by @deprrous. Thank you for the responsible disclosure.

Severity
7.5 (High)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Show details on source website
To clipboard 

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "npm",
        "name": "@auth/core"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0.1.0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "0.41.3"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "database_specific": {
        "last_known_affected_version_range": "\u003c= 5.0.0-beta.31"
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "npm",
        "name": "next-auth"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "5.0.0-beta.0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "5.0.0-beta.32"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "database_specific": {
        "last_known_affected_version_range": "\u003c= 4.24.14"
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "npm",
        "name": "next-auth"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "4.0.6"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "4.24.15"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2026-73418"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-20"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2026-07-23T14:42:55Z",
    "nvd_published_at": "2026-08-12T21:17:40Z",
    "severity": "HIGH"
  },
  "details": "## Summary\n\nThe exported `getToken()` helper (`next-auth/jwt` and `@auth/core/jwt`) can throw an uncaught exception when it reads a malformed `Authorization: Bearer \u2026` header. When no session cookie is present, `getToken()` URL-decodes the bearer value before validating it, and malformed percent-encoding causes the decode step to throw rather than being treated as an invalid token. Because `getToken()` is commonly called in API routes, middleware, and other request handlers, a single unauthenticated request can trigger an unhandled exception in code paths that authenticate requests.\n\n## Am I affected?\n\nYou are affected if **all** of the following hold:\n\n- You use `next-auth` `\u003c= 5.0.0-beta.25` (or `@auth/core` exposing the same `getToken()` implementation).\n- Your application calls `getToken()` directly \u2014 for example in a Route Handler, middleware, or server-side request handler.\n- You do not wrap that `getToken()` call in your own `try/catch`.\n\nYou are **not** affected if you only use the framework\u0027s `auth()` helper and never call `getToken()` yourself, or if every `getToken()` call site already has its own exception handling.\n\n## Impact\n\n- Denial of service: an unauthenticated request carrying a malformed Bearer authorization header can raise an unhandled exception in any handler that calls `getToken()`.\n- The impact is per-request and limited to availability; it does not expose tokens, sessions, or other data, and does not bypass authentication.\n\nCWE-20: Improper Input Validation.\n\n## Patched version\n\nThe fix makes `getToken()` treat a malformed Bearer value as an invalid token and return `null`, matching how other undecodable tokens are already handled. Upgrade to the first release containing this fix (to be published; this advisory will be updated with the exact patched version before publication) and no code changes are required.\n\n## Workarounds\n\nIf you cannot upgrade immediately, either:\n\n- **Config/code-level:** wrap your `getToken()` calls so a thrown error is treated as \"no token\", e.g.\n\n  ```ts\n  let token = null\n  try {\n    token = await getToken({ req, secret })\n  } catch {\n    token = null\n  }\n  ```\n\n- Or strip/normalize the incoming `Authorization` header at the edge (proxy, middleware) before it reaches `getToken()`, rejecting values whose Bearer portion is not valid percent-encoding.\n\n## Credit\n\nReported by @deprrous. Thank you for the responsible disclosure.",
  "id": "GHSA-xmf8-cvqr-rfgj",
  "modified": "2026-08-13T19:05:18Z",
  "published": "2026-07-23T14:42:55Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/nextauthjs/next-auth/security/advisories/GHSA-xmf8-cvqr-rfgj"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-73418"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/nextauthjs/next-auth/pull/13467"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/nextauthjs/next-auth/pull/13469"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/nextauthjs/next-auth/commit/5bca2399a79ba8d116ca5179b4b1ebcd152e7f05"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/nextauthjs/next-auth/commit/e707770f00c52b3479e43422b0200b059149ed53"
    },
    {
      "type": "PACKAGE",
      "url": "https://github.com/nextauthjs/next-auth"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/nextauthjs/next-auth/releases/tag/@auth/core@0.41.3"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/nextauthjs/next-auth/releases/tag/next-auth@4.24.15"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/nextauthjs/next-auth/releases/tag/next-auth@5.0.0-beta.32"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "Auth.js: getToken() throws an uncaught exception on malformed Bearer authorization headers"
}



Log in or create an account to share your comment.




Tags
Taxonomy of the tags.





Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

Sightings

Author Source Type Date Other

Nomenclature

  • Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
  • Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
  • Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
  • Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.



Related by attack behaviour

Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.