NVD / CVE Program· CNA GitHub_M

CVE-2023-23612: Issue with whitespace in JWT roles in OpenSearch

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 35/100)

The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.79% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 56.5% of all records.
Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. A low-privileged account is enough. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
Fixed version: org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security (Maven) 2.5.0, 1.3.8.
Severity is disputed: the assigning authority (CNA) scores it 4.7, NVD 8.8.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security (Maven) 2.5.0, 1.3.8 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

OpenSearch is an open source distributed and RESTful search engine. OpenSearch uses JWTs to store role claims obtained from the Identity Provider (IdP) when the authentication backend is SAML or OpenID Connect. There is an issue in how those claims are processed from the JWTs where the leading and trailing whitespace is trimmed, allowing users to potentially claim roles they are not assigned to if any role matches the whitespace-stripped version of the roles they are a member of. This issue is only present for authenticated users, and it requires either the existence of roles that match, not considering leading/trailing whitespace, or the ability for users to create said matching roles. In addition, the Identity Provider must allow leading and trailing spaces in role names. OpenSearch 1.0.0-1.3.7 and 2.0.0-2.4.1 are affected. Users are advised to upgrade to OpenSearch 1.3.8 or 2.5.0. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

HighCVSS 8.8 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available

Auth bypass

Published: Jan 26, 2023
Updated: Jun 17, 2026
EPSS: 0.7% · 56th percentile
CWE: CWE-287

Report tools

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Action score

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS: 35 / 40 · 8.8 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 0 / 30 · 0.7%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD: 8.8
CNA · GitHub_M: 4.7; 4.1 point gap

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
No public exploit code on record
A fix has been released

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
amazon	opensearch	cpe:2.3:a:amazon:opensearch

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

amazon opensearch1.0.0 and later · before 1.3.8
amazon opensearch2.0.0 and later · before 2.5.0

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (GitHub_M). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

opensearch-project security
- >= 2.0.0, < 2.5.0, < 1.3.8affected

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

Ecosystem	Package	Affected range	Fix
Maven	org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security	from 2.0.0 · before 2.5.0	2.5.0
Maven	org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security	before 1.3.8	1.3.8

Same product

amazon: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2022-31115Unsafe YAML deserialization in opensearch-ruby
35Monitor
CVE-2025-9624OpenSearch 3.2.0 - Nested Boolean/Disjunction asymmetric DoS
33Monitor
CVE-2022-35980OpenSearch vulnerable to Improper Authorization of Index Containing Sensitive Information
30Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2022-41918Nov 15, 2022 · Issue with fine-grained access control of indices backing data streams
25Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2022-41917Nov 15, 2022 · Incorrect Error Handling Allowed Partial File Reads Over REST API in OpenSearch
17Monitor
Later →CVE-2023-23613Jan 26, 2023 · Field-level security issue with .keyword fields in OpenSearch
26Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / package	Fixed version	Source
Maven:org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security	1.3.8	Package registry (OSV)
Maven:org.opensearch.plugin:opensearch-security	2.5.0	Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

The product’s vendor appears in a public program. Matched by name; verify the scope text in the program.

Technical details

Attack conditions

Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
A low-privileged account is enough.
No user action is required.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality: high · data can be read
Integrity: high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability: high · the service can be disrupted

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

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-287 · Improper Authentication

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd-primary

Root cause

Authentication is added route by route instead of being enforced in one place. When a route added later bypasses the shared middleware, the session check never runs for it.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-287 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

1app.use("/admin", requireSession, adminRouter);
2

3// Route added later skips the middleware
4app.post("/admin-api/config", updateConfig);

Fixed

1const admin = express.Router();
2admin.use(requireSession, requireRole("admin"));
3

4admin.post("/config", updateConfig);
5app.use("/admin", admin);

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Attack patterns (CAPEC)

ATT&CK techniques

Change log

Fix✗ → ✓Sep 28, 2026, 10:47 PM UTC

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References

github.com/opensearch-project/OpenSearch/releases/tag/2.5.0

Show all references (1 more)

github.com/opensearch-project/security/security/advisories/GHSA-864v-6qj7-62qj

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records