criticalVulnerability

GHSA-gfj5-979r-92pw

@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.

Properties

ghsa_id
GHSA-gfj5-979r-92pw
severity
critical
summary
@acastellon/auth: Authentication bypass via spoofable headers in validateToken()
cve_id
GHSA-gfj5-979r-92pw
is_ghsa_only
true
ghsa_published
2026-06-18T17:22:47Z
source_url
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-gfj5-979r-92pw
ghsa_updated
2026-06-18T17:22:50Z

Related Entities (4)

VULNERABLE_TO (1)

[Software]npm/@acastellon/auth

AFFECTS (1)

[Software]npm/@acastellon/auth

HAS_WEAKNESS (1)

[Weakness]Authentication Bypass by Spoofing

REPORTED_BY (1)

[Source]GitHub Advisory Database

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