CVE-2026-102460
8.6HighPublished 14 Oct 2026 · NVD status: Undergoing Analysis · AI triage by gemini-3.8-flash
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Impact
- High impact on confidentiality, integrity
- Weakness
- —
Impact
Authenticated attackers with low privileges can bypass route scope checks and access protected resources. They only need a valid token authenticated by an earlier handler in the pipeline to skip scopes enforced by a downstream ChainAuthHandler.
Root cause
ChainAuthHandler's postAuthentication() phase skips scope validation entirely for pre-authenticated routing contexts because internal state set during authenticate() is missing.
Affected systems
Eclipse Vert.x (io.vertx:vertx-web) 4.0.0 through 4.5.34, 5.0.0 through 5.0.12, 5.1.0 through 5.1.9, and 5.2.0
CVSS v4.0 · CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Fix & remediation
Upgrade io.vertx:vertx-web to a patched release above 4.5.34, 5.0.12, 5.1.9, or 5.2.0. If you cannot upgrade immediately, avoid chaining scope checks on routes where an earlier handler in the pipeline has already authenticated the user.
$ ./mvnw dependency:tree -Dincludes=io.vertx:vertx-webAI-suggested. Run it in staging first and check it against the vendor advisory. Why?
NVD description
In Eclipse Vert.x versions [4.0.0, 4.5.34] or [5.0.0,5.0.12] or [5.1.0,5.1.9] or [5.2.0, 5.2.0], a scope bypass vulnerability exists in Eclipse Vert.x Web's ChainAuthHandler when used with scope-requiring authentication handlers such as JWTAuthHandler or OAuth2AuthHandler. When a user is already authenticated on the routing context by a preceding handler in the request pipeline, ChainAuthHandler skips all scope validation configured via withScope() or withScopes(). This affects both any() and all() chain modes. The root cause is that postAuthentication() relies on internal state that is only set during the authenticate() phase, which is skipped entirely for pre-authenticated users. In any() mode, the absence of this state causes the method to fall through without delegating scope checks to any handler. In all() mode, scope checks are unconditionally skipped. This allows a user with a valid token but insufficient scopes to access resources protected by scope requirements, provided they were authenticated by an earlier handler in the pipeline. The most common trigger is overlapping authentication handlers on nested routes, where a parent route authenticates broadly and a child route uses a chain to enforce specific scopes. The impacted component Maven coordinate is io.vertx:vertx-web