CVE-2026-97394

kin-openapi: Nil-pointer dereference panic in openapi3filter for OpenAPI 3.1 array schemas missing items

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: October 15, 2026 at 03:29 PM UTC
Updated: October 20, 2026 at 03:17 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorKin Openapi

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.6%
SSVC
PoC

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

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

>= 0.136.0, < 0.143.0

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCPoCAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.5HIGHGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED
CWE
CWE-248CWE-476

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