CVE-2021-22696

OAuth 2 authorization service vulnerable to DDos attacks

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: April 2, 2021 at 10:05 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 03:37 AM UTC
6 products affected across 2 vendorsBusiness IntelligenceCXFCommunications Session Route Manager

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 7%

Description

CXF supports (via JwtRequestCodeFilter) passing OAuth 2 parameters via a JWT token as opposed to query parameters (see: The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework: JWT Secured Authorization Request (JAR)). Instead of sending a JWT token as a "request" parameter, the spec also supports specifying a URI from which to retrieve a JWT token from via the "request_uri" parameter. CXF was not validating the "request_uri" parameter (apart from ensuring it uses "https) and was making a REST request to the parameter in the request to retrieve a token. This means that CXF was vulnerable to DDos attacks on the authorization server, as specified in section 10.4.1 of the spec. This issue affects Apache CXF versions prior to 3.4.3; Apache CXF versions prior to 3.3.10.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

95%
v < 3.3.10v < 3.4.33.4.0 ≤ v < 3.4.3
Affected range stops below 3.3.10, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 3.4.3, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
8.0.0 ≤ v ≤ 8.1.08.2.0 ≤ v ≤ 8.2.3
8.0.0 ≤ v ≤ 8.2.4.0
8.0.0 ≤ v ≤ 8.2.4

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-400CWE-918

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