CVE-2026-74240: Improper Authentication in Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Update Service
CVE-2026-74240 is a medium severity vulnerability in Red Hat Quay's JWT validation for federated robot accounts and single sign-on authentication. The flaw involves improper enforcement of audience, 'azp', and 'sub' claims in JWT tokens, allowing an attacker with a valid token from the same identity provider to bypass configured security restrictions. Exploitation requires a pre-existing valid token from the same IdP, limiting the attack surface. The vulnerability affects Red Hat OpenShift Update Service, which is a cloud-hosted service. Red Hat provides configuration-based mitigations to enforce proper claim validation and recommends restarting affected services after applying these changes.
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
This vulnerability arises from multiple issues in Red Hat Quay's JWT validation process, specifically related to audience verification and enforcement of 'azp' and 'sub' claims for federated robot accounts and SSO authentication. Due to default configurations that do not enforce audience verification and insufficient checks for these claims, an attacker possessing a validly-signed token from the same identity provider can bypass intended audience, subject, or authorized-client restrictions. This flaw could lead to unauthorized access by circumventing these security controls. Exploitation requires possession of a valid token from the same IdP, which limits the scope of attack. The affected product is a cloud service, and Red Hat manages remediation server-side. Administrators are advised to configure federated robot authentication with specific audiences to enable 'verify_aud' enforcement and update federation configurations to explicitly enforce 'azp' and 'sub' claims.
Potential Impact
The vulnerability allows an attacker with a valid token from the same identity provider to bypass configured security restrictions related to audience, subject, or authorized-client limitations. This could lead to unauthorized access to resources or functionality that should be restricted. The impact is rated as medium with low confidentiality and integrity impacts and no availability impact. Exploitation requires a pre-existing valid token, which limits the attack surface.
Mitigation Recommendations
Red Hat manages remediation for this cloud-hosted service. Administrators should ensure that federated robot authentication is configured with specific audiences to enable 'verify_aud' enforcement. They should also review and update federation configurations to explicitly include and enforce 'azp' and 'sub' claims to prevent bypasses when these claims are absent. After applying configuration changes, a restart of affected Quay services may be required. Refer to the official Red Hat Quay documentation and advisory at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-74240 for detailed guidance.
CVE-2026-74240: Improper Authentication in Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Update Service
Description
CVE-2026-74240 is a medium severity vulnerability in Red Hat Quay's JWT validation for federated robot accounts and single sign-on authentication. The flaw involves improper enforcement of audience, 'azp', and 'sub' claims in JWT tokens, allowing an attacker with a valid token from the same identity provider to bypass configured security restrictions. Exploitation requires a pre-existing valid token from the same IdP, limiting the attack surface. The vulnerability affects Red Hat OpenShift Update Service, which is a cloud-hosted service. Red Hat provides configuration-based mitigations to enforce proper claim validation and recommends restarting affected services after applying these changes.
CVSS v3.1
Score 5.4medium
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
This vulnerability arises from multiple issues in Red Hat Quay's JWT validation process, specifically related to audience verification and enforcement of 'azp' and 'sub' claims for federated robot accounts and SSO authentication. Due to default configurations that do not enforce audience verification and insufficient checks for these claims, an attacker possessing a validly-signed token from the same identity provider can bypass intended audience, subject, or authorized-client restrictions. This flaw could lead to unauthorized access by circumventing these security controls. Exploitation requires possession of a valid token from the same IdP, which limits the scope of attack. The affected product is a cloud service, and Red Hat manages remediation server-side. Administrators are advised to configure federated robot authentication with specific audiences to enable 'verify_aud' enforcement and update federation configurations to explicitly enforce 'azp' and 'sub' claims.
Potential Impact
The vulnerability allows an attacker with a valid token from the same identity provider to bypass configured security restrictions related to audience, subject, or authorized-client limitations. This could lead to unauthorized access to resources or functionality that should be restricted. The impact is rated as medium with low confidentiality and integrity impacts and no availability impact. Exploitation requires a pre-existing valid token, which limits the attack surface.
Mitigation Recommendations
Red Hat manages remediation for this cloud-hosted service. Administrators should ensure that federated robot authentication is configured with specific audiences to enable 'verify_aud' enforcement. They should also review and update federation configurations to explicitly include and enforce 'azp' and 'sub' claims to prevent bypasses when these claims are absent. After applying configuration changes, a restart of affected Quay services may be required. Refer to the official Red Hat Quay documentation and advisory at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-74240 for detailed guidance.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- redhat
- Date Reserved
- 2026-08-14T19:46:37.190Z
- Cvss Version
- 3.1
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Remediation Level
- null
- Is Cloud Service
- true
- Vendor Advisory Urls
- [{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-74240","vendor":"Red Hat"}]
Threat ID: 6a7f9d48bf8831d539dc2e19
Added to database: 08/14/2026, 22:57:12 UTC
Last enriched: 08/14/2026, 23:16:07 UTC
Last updated: 08/15/2026, 01:08:52 UTC
Views: 5
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