OAuth 2 authorization service vulnerable to DDos attacks

Summary

CXF supports (via JwtRequestCodeFilter) passing OAuth 2 parameters via a JWT token as opposed to query parameters (see: The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework: JWT Secured Authorization Request (JAR)). Instead of sending a JWT token as a "request" parameter, the spec also supports specifying a URI from which to retrieve a JWT token from via the "request_uri" parameter. CXF was not validating the "request_uri" parameter (apart from ensuring it uses "https) and was making a REST request to the parameter in the request to retrieve a token. This means that CXF was vulnerable to DDos attacks on the authorization server, as specified in section 10.4.1 of the spec. This issue affects Apache CXF versions prior to 3.4.3; Apache CXF versions prior to 3.3.10.

Timeline

1. Apr 2, 2021, 10:05 AM UTCCVE published
2. Feb 13, 2025, 4:27 PM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• Apache Software Foundation Apache CXF

  fixed in 3.4.3; fixed in 3.3.10

• org.apache.cxf:cxfMaven

  From 3.4.0 · fixed in 3.4.3

• org.apache.cxf:cxfMaven

  fixed in 3.3.10

• org.apache.cxf:apache-cxfMaven

  From 3.4.0 · fixed in 3.4.3

• org.apache.cxf:apache-cxfMaven

  fixed in 3.3.10

References 9