Vulnerability · Published Aug 18, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-73502kin-openapi openapi3filter: unauthenticated nil-pointer panic when validating a request against a `content` parameter whose media type has no schema
Medium 5.3
In plain English
A medium-severity null pointer dereference in kin-openapi from getkin. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.5% (higher than 43% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
kin-openapi is a Go project for handling OpenAPI files. From 0.2.0 until 0.144.0, openapi3filter.ValidateRequest can encounter a NULL-pointer-dereference denial of service when an operation declares a content parameter whose application/json media type has no schema. In openapi3filter/req_resp_decoder.go, the default defaultContentParameterDecoder dereferences mt.Schema.Value without checking whether mt.Schema is nil, even though doc.Validate() accepts the document under OpenAPI 3.0.x and 3.1.x. A single unauthenticated request supplying the parameter value can panic request validation, causing an aborted request with log growth in the common synchronous net/http path or a full process crash in integrations without recovery. This issue is fixed in version 0.144.0.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | golang-github-getkin-kin-openapi | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-73502 |
| Debian:13 | golang-github-getkin-kin-openapi | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-73502 |
| Debian:14 | golang-github-getkin-kin-openapi | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-73502 |
| Go | github.com/getkin/kin-openapi | 0.144.0 | GHSA-jpcw-4wr7-c3vq |
| Go | github.com/getkin/kin-openapi | 0.144.0 | GO-2026-6112 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | golang-github-getkin-kin-openapi | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-73502 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | golang-github-getkin-kin-openapi | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-73502 |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | golang-github-getkin-kin-openapi | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-73502 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | golang-github-getkin-kin-openapi | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-73502 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| getkin | kin-openapi | >= 0.2.0, < 0.144.0 |
Weakness: CWE-476 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L