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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2021-44878 json

Pac4j token validation bypass if OpenID Connect provider supports none algorithm

published 2022-01-06 4 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-xhw6-hjc9-679m , EUVD-2022-0744

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.9%
EPSS 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 60%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

If an OpenID Connect provider supports the "none" algorithm (i.e., tokens with no signature), pac4j v5.3.0 (and prior) does not refuse it without an explicit configuration on its side or for the "idtoken" response type which is not secure and violates the OpenID Core Specification. The "none" algorithm does not require any signature verification when validating the ID tokens, which allows the attacker to bypass the token validation by injecting a malformed ID token using "none" as the value of "alg" key in the header with an empty signature value.

Patch / fix

  • maven org.pac4j:pac4j-oidc 4.5.5, 5.3.1
  • pac4j pac4j 4.5.5, 5.3.1

Exploit prediction

0.92% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 60% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
GitHub 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven org.pac4j:pac4j-oidc
<4.5.5
>=5.0, <5.3.1
4.5.5
5.3.1

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-347 Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.