CVE-2025-13877: @nocobase/auth Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-mv7p-34fv-4874",
  "modified" : "2025-12-09T17:42:53Z",
  "published" : "2025-12-09T17:42:53Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2025-13877" ],
  "summary" : "Authentication Bypass via Default JWT Secret in NocoBase docker-compose Deployments",
  "details" : "### Impact\n\nCVE-2025-13877 is an **authentication bypass vulnerability caused by insecure default JWT key usage** in NocoBase Docker deployments.\n\nBecause the official one-click Docker deployment configuration historically provided a **public default JWT key**, attackers can **forge valid JWT tokens without possessing any legitimate credentials**. By constructing a token with a known `userId` (commonly the administrator account), an attacker can directly bypass authentication and authorization checks.\n\nSuccessful exploitation allows an attacker to:\n\n- Bypass authentication entirely\n- Impersonate arbitrary users\n- Gain full administrator privileges\n- Access sensitive business data\n- Create, modify, or delete users\n- Access cloud storage credentials and other protected secrets\n\nThe vulnerability is **remotely exploitable**, requires **no authentication**, and **public proof-of-concept exploits are available**.  \nThis issue is functionally equivalent in impact to other JWT secret exposure vulnerabilities such as **CVE-2024-43441** and **CVE-2025-30206**.\n\nDeployments that used the default Docker configuration without explicitly overriding the JWT secret are affected.\n\n---\n\n### Patches\n\n✅ The vulnerability has been **fully patched** through a secure JWT key management redesign.\n\nThe remediation enforces the following security guarantees:\n\n- JWT secrets are no longer allowed to fall back to public default values.\n- Secrets must either:\n  - Be explicitly provided by the user, or\n  - Be securely generated using cryptographically strong randomness at first startup.\n- Generated secrets are persisted securely with restricted filesystem permissions.\n- Invalid or weak secret values immediately trigger a startup failure.\n\n✅ Fixed Versions:\n- **NocoBase ≥ 1.9.23**\n- **NocoBase ≥ 1.9.0-beta.18**\n- **NocoBase ≥ 2.0.0-alpha.52**\n\n---\n\n### Workarounds\n\nIf upgrading is not immediately possible, the following temporary mitigations **must** be performed to reduce risk:\n\n1. Explicitly set a **strong, randomly generated JWT secret** via environment variables `APP_KEY`.\n2. **Restart all running NocoBase instances** so the new secret takes effect.\n3. **Invalidate all existing JWT sessions**, forcing complete user re-authentication.\n4. Verify that **no default secret values** are present in:\n   - `docker-compose.yml`\n   - `.env` files\n   - Kubernetes Secrets\n\n---\n\n### References\n\n- **CVE Record:** CVE-2025-13877  \n- **VulDB Entry:** https://vuldb.com/?id.334033  \n- **Public Exploit Proof:**  \n  https://gist.github.com/H2u8s/f3ede60d7ecfe598ae452aa5a8fbb90d  \n\n- **Affected Default Docker Configurations:**  \n  - https://github.com/nocobase/nocobase/blob/main/docker/app-mysql/docker-compose.yml#L13  \n  - https://github.com/nocobase/nocobase/blob/main/docker/app-mariadb/docker-compose.yml#L13  \n  - https://github.com/nocobase/nocobase/blob/main/docker/app-postgres/docker-compose.yml#L11  \n  - https://github.com/nocobase/nocobase/blob/main/docker/app-sqlite/docker-compose.yml#L11  \n\n- **Official Deployment Documentation:**  \n  - https://docs.nocobase.com/welcome/getting-started/installation/docker-compose  \n  - https://v2.docs.nocobase.com/get-started/installation/docker",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "@nocobase/auth"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "1.9.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "1.9.23"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 1.9.21"
    }
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "@nocobase/auth"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "1.9.0-beta.18"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 1.9.0-beta.17"
    }
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "@nocobase/auth"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "2.0.0-alpha.1"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "2.0.0-alpha.52"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 2.0.0-alpha.51"
    }
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/nocobase/nocobase/security/advisories/GHSA-mv7p-34fv-4874"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-13877"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/nocobase/nocobase/commit/de4292ea7847dd26c6306445091769f8b9ee96d5"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://docs.nocobase.com/welcome/getting-started/installation/docker-compose"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://gist.github.com/H2u8s/f3ede60d7ecfe598ae452aa5a8fbb90d"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/nocobase/nocobase"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/nocobase/nocobase/blob/main/docker/app-mariadb/docker-compose.yml#L13"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/nocobase/nocobase/blob/main/docker/app-mysql/docker-compose.yml#L13"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/nocobase/nocobase/blob/main/docker/app-postgres/docker-compose.yml#L11"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/nocobase/nocobase/blob/main/docker/app-sqlite/docker-compose.yml#L11"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://v2.docs.nocobase.com/get-started/installation/docker"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://vuldb.com/?ctiid.334033"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://vuldb.com/?id.334033"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://vuldb.com/?submit.692205"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-1320", "CWE-321" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2025-12-09T17:42:53Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}