VDB
KO
CRITICAL

GHSA-gfj5-979r-92pw

@acastellon/auth: Authentication bypass via spoofable headers in validateToken()

Details

@acastellon/auth v2.2.0 appears to allow an unauthenticated authentication bypass in validateToken() through spoofable auth-user and Host request headers.

The validateToken middleware contains a service-to-service bypass for auth-user: service-brother when req.get('host').startsWith(getHostName()). Both values involved in the check can be influenced by an unauthenticated HTTP client: auth-user is a request header, and Host is also client-controlled. As a result, a remote unauthenticated attacker can send a request with crafted headers and bypass token validation before the normal legacy/JWT/OIDC validation logic runs.

Impact: An attacker may be able to access routes protected by validateToken() without a valid token. In deployments where downstream services trust auth-user or is-* headers, this may also lead to privilege escalation.

Affected package: @acastellon/auth v2.2.0

Affected code: auth.js, validateToken() The issue is related to the service-brother bypass and getHostName() check.

Example request: ``` GET /protected HTTP/1.1 Host: <configured CNAME or hostname> auth-user: service-brother is-admin: true ```

Expected behavior: The request should require a valid authentication token.

Actual behavior: The middleware calls next() before token validation.

Fix implemented in v2.3.0+:

Removed the spoofable bypass. Always sanitize incoming auth-user and is-* headers. Added mTLS client certificate based service auth (with optional TRUSTED_MTLS_SERVICES allowlist). Updated consumers (rest, graphql, dns-client) for mTLS support. Unit tests added for sanitization + mTLS path.

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Affected packages

npm / @acastellon/auth
Introduced in: 0 Fixed in: 2.3.0
Fix npm install @acastellon/auth@2.3.0

References