Client impersonation via ambiguous JWT audience
Published Mar 3, 2025 · Updated Apr 25, 2025
Authentication bypass in IETF RFC 7523 allows remote attackers to impersonate OAuth clients through crafted authorization-server metadata. The specification permits a token-endpoint URL as the JWT audience, so a malicious authorization server can advertise an honest server's endpoint and induce a client to sign an assertion accepted there. Exploitation requires a client that uses the same signing key with at least two authorization servers and interacts with an attacker-controlled server; the assertion enables client impersonation and unauthorized access to user resources.
Summary
What happened
Authentication bypass in IETF RFC 7523 allows remote attackers to impersonate OAuth clients through crafted authorization-server metadata. The specification permits a token-endpoint URL as the JWT audience, so a malicious authorization server can advertise an honest server's endpoint and induce a client to sign an assertion accepted there. Exploitation requires a client that uses the same signing key with at least two authorization servers and interacts with an attacker-controlled server; the assertion enables client impersonation and unauthorized access to user resources.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-27371
- Published
- Mar 3, 2025
- Updated
- Apr 25, 2025
- Vendor
- Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
- Product
- RFC 7523: JSON Web Token (JWT) Profile for OAuth 2.0 Client Authentication and Authorization Grants
- Classifications
- CWE-305
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 3, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Apr 25, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
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- Affected versionversion=7523
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What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Technologies
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