VulnerabilityPublished 10 Mar 2026

CVE-2026-29792: feathersjs feathers · Improper Authentication

Affects feathersjs feathersSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 9.3 Critical : upgrade to 5.0.42 as a priority.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 11:52 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

9.3Critical

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Contested

Critical score, yet low EPSS after six months

EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 45% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 5.0.42

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: High
Vulnerable system integrity: High
Vulnerable system availability: None
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable system is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed “remotely exploitable” and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files of the vulnerable system to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: High: There is a total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all information within the Vulnerable System being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact. For example, an attacker steals the administrator's password, or private encryption keys of a web server.
Vulnerable system integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the vulnerable system. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 10 Mar 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 30 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade feathers and authentication-oauth and feathersjs/feathers to 5.0.42.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
feathersjsfeathers	Affected >=5.0.0 <5.0.42	Fixed in 5.0.42
@feathersjsauthentication-oauth	Affected >=5.0.0 <5.0.42	Fixed in 5.0.42
npmfeathersjs/feathers`pkg:npm/feathersjs/feathers`Other threats	Affected <5.0.42 >=5.0.0	Fixed in 5.0.42

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

To mitigate this vulnerability, organizations should immediately upgrade Feathersjs to version 5.0.42 or later, where the issue is fixed. If upgrading is not immediately possible, implement strict input validation and sanitization on the /oauth/:provider/callback endpoint to reject any requests containing forged or unexpected query parameters. Disable or restrict direct access to the OAuth callback endpoint from untrusted sources. Review and harden the OAuth integration to ensure that the authentication flow strictly requires valid session or state parameters before minting tokens. Employ additional monitoring and anomaly detection on OAuth callback requests to identify suspicious patterns indicative of exploitation attempts. Consider implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce the impact of compromised tokens. Finally, audit logs for any unauthorized access and revoke any suspicious tokens issued prior to patching.

Description

Feathersjs is a framework for creating web APIs and real-time applications with TypeScript or JavaScript. From 5.0.0 to before 5.0.42, an unauthenticated attacker can send a crafted GET request directly to /oauth/:provider/callback with a forged profile in the query string. The OAuth service's authentication payload has a fallback chain that reaches params.query (the raw request query) when Grant's session/state responses are empty. Since the attacker never initiated an OAuth authorize flow, Grant has no session to work with and produces no response, so the fallback fires. The forged profile then drives entity lookup and JWT minting. The attacker gets a valid access token for an existing user without ever contacting the OAuth provider. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.0.42.

Impact

The impact of CVE-2026-29792 is severe for organizations using vulnerable versions of Feathersjs in their web APIs or real-time applications. Attackers can impersonate any existing user without needing credentials or interaction with the legitimate OAuth provider, leading to unauthorized access to sensitive data and functionality. This can result in data breaches, privilege escalation, and compromise of application integrity. Since JWT tokens minted by the attacker are valid, they can bypass normal authentication and authorization checks, potentially accessing confidential user information, modifying data, or performing actions on behalf of the victim user. The vulnerability affects all deployments using the affected Feathersjs versions with OAuth authentication enabled, which may include startups, SaaS providers, and enterprises relying on this framework. The ease of exploitation over the network without authentication or user interaction increases the risk of automated attacks and widespread compromise. Organizations may face regulatory, reputational, and operational consequences if exploited.

CWE-287Improper Authentication (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighOWASP Top 10 A07:2025: Authentication Failures (opens in a new tab)
When an actor claims to have a given identity, the product does not prove or insufficiently proves that the claim is correct.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use an authentication framework or library such as the OWASP ESAPI Authentication feature.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
OWASP Authentication (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V2.8.5 (opens in a new tab)
V2.8.4 (opens in a new tab)
V9.2.3 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Fake the Source of Data (opens in a new tab)
Utilizing REST's Trust in the System Resource to Obtain Sensitive Data (opens in a new tab)
Session Hijacking (opens in a new tab)
Token Impersonation (opens in a new tab)
Upload a Web Shell to a Web Server (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

github.com/feathersjs/feathers/security/advisories/GHSA-wg9x-qfgw-pxhj (opens in a new tab)

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 11 Mar 2026, 14:44 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-287

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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