CVE-2023-23612 | Issue with whitespace in JWT roles in OpenSearch

OpenSearch is an open source distributed and RESTful search engine. OpenSearch uses JWTs to store role claims obtained from the Identity Provider (IdP) when the authentication backend is SAML or OpenID Connect. There is an issue in how those claims are processed from the JWTs where the leading and trailing whitespace is trimmed, allowing users to potentially claim roles they are not assigned to if any role matches the whitespace-stripped version of the roles they are a member of. This issue is only present for authenticated users, and it requires either the existence of roles that match, not considering leading/trailing whitespace, or the ability for users to create said matching roles. In addition, the Identity Provider must allow leading and trailing spaces in role names. OpenSearch 1.0.0-1.3.7 and 2.0.0-2.4.1 are affected. Users are advised to upgrade to OpenSearch 1.3.8 or 2.5.0. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

Published: 2023-01-26 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-23612 is rated Low Risk (31.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.16%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-23612

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-04-28 0.27% 0.16% -0.11%
2 2026-01-25 0.12% 0.27% +0.15%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.12% —

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-23612

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.7 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 1.2 3.4 [email protected]
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-23612

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-23612

GHSA-864v-6qj7-62qj · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: maven — Issue with whitespace in JWT roles in OpenSearch

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-23612

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-23612 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (opensearch), 1 status rows across 1 suites (sid): open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-23612
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-23612 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (opensearch), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 7, ignored 3, needs-triage 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-23612

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-23612

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
amazon opensearch >= 1.0.0, < 1.3.8 cpe:2.3:a:amazon:opensearch:*:*:*:*:*:-:*:*
amazon opensearch >= 2.0.0, < 2.5.0 cpe:2.3:a:amazon:opensearch:*:*:*:*:*:-:*:*

References for CVE-2023-23612

cvelogic Threat Intelligence