Vulnerability · Published Nov 4, 2024 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2024-51744Bad documentation of error handling in ParseWithClaims can lead to potentially dangerous situations in golang-jwt
Low 3.1
In plain English
A low-severity security flaw in jwt from golang-jwt. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.6% (higher than 48% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
golang-jwt is a Go implementation of JSON Web Tokens. Unclear documentation of the error behavior in `ParseWithClaims` can lead to situation where users are potentially not checking errors in the way they should be. Especially, if a token is both expired and invalid, the errors returned by `ParseWithClaims` return both error codes. If users only check for the `jwt.ErrTokenExpired ` using `error.Is`, they will ignore the embedded `jwt.ErrTokenSignatureInvalid` and thus potentially accept invalid tokens. A fix has been back-ported with the error handling logic from the `v5` branch to the `v4` branch. In this logic, the `ParseWithClaims` function will immediately return in "dangerous" situations (e.g., an invalid signature), limiting the combined errors only to situations where the signature is valid, but further validation failed (e.g., if the signature is valid, but is expired AND has the wrong audience). This fix is part of the 4.5.1 release. We are aware that this changes the behaviour of an established function and is not 100 % backwards compatible, so updating to 4.5.1 might break your code. In case you cannot update to 4.5.0, please make sure that you are properly checking for all errors ("dangerous" ones first), so that you are not running in the case detailed above.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | golang-github-golang-jwt-jwt | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2024-51744 |
| Debian:13 | golang-github-golang-jwt-jwt | 5.0.0+really4.5.2-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2024-51744 |
| Debian:14 | golang-github-golang-jwt-jwt | 5.0.0+really4.5.2-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2024-51744 |
| Go | github.com/golang-jwt/jwt/v4 | 4.5.1 | GHSA-29wx-vh33-7x7r |
| Go | github.com/golang-jwt/jwt/v4 | 4.5.1 | GO-2024-3250 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | golang-github-golang-jwt-jwt | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2024-51744 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | golang-github-golang-jwt-jwt | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2024-51744 |
| Ubuntu:25.10 | golang-github-golang-jwt-jwt | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2024-51744 |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | golang-github-golang-jwt-jwt | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2024-51744 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | golang-github-golang-jwt-jwt | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2024-51744 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | golang-github-golang-jwt-jwt-v5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2024-51744 |
| Ubuntu:25.10 | golang-github-golang-jwt-jwt-v5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2024-51744 |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | golang-github-golang-jwt-jwt-v5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2024-51744 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | golang-github-golang-jwt-jwt-v5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2024-51744 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| golang-jwt | jwt | < 4.5.1 |
Weakness: CWE-755 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N