Vulnerability · Published Oct 15, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-97394kin-openapi: Nil-pointer dereference panic in openapi3filter for OpenAPI 3.1 array schemas missing items
High 7.5
In plain English
A high-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 0.6% (higher than 50% 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 0.136.0 until 0.143.0, openapi3filter accepts OpenAPI 3.1 array schemas without an items keyword and then dereferences the nil Schema.Items value while decoding application/x-www-form-urlencoded or multipart/form-data request bodies, response headers, and other array parameter surfaces. A remote unauthenticated client can reach an affected operation with a nonempty request or matching response and deterministically trigger a nil-pointer panic during ValidateRequest or ValidateResponse. OpenAPI 3.0 documents are not affected because document validation rejects arrays without items, and JSON request bodies use a different decoder path. This issue is fixed in version 0.143.0.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Go | github.com/getkin/kin-openapi | 0.143.0 | GHSA-p6wj-qrr4-pgh5 |
| Go | github.com/getkin/kin-openapi | 0.143.0 | GO-2026-6790 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | golang-github-getkin-kin-openapi | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97394 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | golang-github-getkin-kin-openapi | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97394 |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | golang-github-getkin-kin-openapi | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97394 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | golang-github-getkin-kin-openapi | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97394 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| getkin | kin-openapi | >= 0.136.0, < 0.143.0 |
Weakness: CWE-248, CWE-476 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
References
- https://github.com/getkin/kin-openapi/security/advisories/GHSA-p6wj-qrr4-pgh5 x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/getkin/kin-openapi/commit/30e292371a89ca6d1f91a9553e0aa518b49f838d x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/getkin/kin-openapi/releases/tag/v0.143.0 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/opnsense/core/security/advisories/GHSA-26cj-h9rj-g5pf exploit