CVE-2026-49473: cedar-policy authorization-for-expressjs · Interpretation Conflict
Affects cedar-policy authorization-for-expressjsSource CVE Database V5
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.8 High : upgrade to 0.3.0 soon.
Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC
- EPSS
- 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 40% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation
- No evidence of active exploitation and no public proof of concept
- Automatable
- Attackers cannot reliably automate steps 1–4 of the kill chain
- Technical impact
- Total control over the software or total information disclosure
CISA SSVC assessment, 2026-08-13.
- Patch
- Available – fixed in 0.3.0
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 12 Aug 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: 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 26 Oct 2026.
What to do
Upgrade cedar-policy authorization-for-expressjs to 0.3.0.
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| cedar-policyauthorization-for-expressjs | Affected
| Fixed in
|
Description
@cedar-policy/authorization-for-expressjs is an open-source Express.js middleware that integrates Cedar authorization into Express applications by mapping HTTP requests to Cedar actions and evaluating authorization policies before allowing requests to proceed. Versions prior to 0.3.0 have an issue where, under certain circumstances, the middleware matches incoming requests against Cedar action mappings using req.originalUrl, which includes the query string, while Express routes requests using only the path component. The middleware uses req.originalUrl to match incoming requests against Cedar action mappings. In Express, req.originalUrl includes the query string, while route matching uses only the path. This creates a divergence between what Cedar authorizes and what Express executes. When an application defines separate actions for overlapping path prefixes with different authorization requirements (for example, GET /users for listing all users with admin-only access, and GET /users/{id} for retrieving a single user with any authenticated user access), an actor can append a query string to bypass the more restrictive policy. Sending GET /users/?x=1 causes the middleware to match against /users/{id} (with id parameter set to ?x=1) and evaluate the less restrictive action, while Express routes the request to the /users list handler. This allows inappropriate access to the more restrictive endpoint. This issue has been addressed in version 0.30. Some workarounds are available. Validate and sanitize incoming request paths before they reach the authorization middleware. Ensure that applications do not rely solely on the middleware for authorization when defining multiple actions on overlapping path prefixes with different permission levels.