CVE-2026-49473
HighCVSS 8.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk40th percentile - higher than 40% of all known CVEs
Summary
A vulnerability in @cedar-policy/authorization-for-expressjs (versions prior to 0.3.0) causes a mismatch between Cedar authorization and Express routing. The middleware uses req.originalUrl (including query string) to match Cedar actions, while Express routes based on the path only. An attacker can append a query parameter (e.g., /users/?x=1) to bypass a more restrictive policy and gain access to a protected resource.
Risk Assessment
The organization is exposed to unauthorized access to sensitive resources if the application defines different permission levels for overlapping path prefixes (e.g., list vs. single resource). This could lead to data confidentiality breaches or privilege escalation.
Recommendation
Upgrade to version 0.3.0 or later immediately. If upgrading is not possible, validate and sanitize incoming request paths before they reach the middleware, and do not rely solely on this middleware for authorization when defining multiple actions on overlapping path prefixes.
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Original NVD description (English source)
@cedar-policy/authorization-for-expressjs is an open-source Express.js middleware that integrates Cedar authorization into Express applications by mapping HTTP requests to Cedar actions and evaluating authorization policies before allowing requests to proceed. Versions prior to 0.3.0 have an issue where, under certain circumstances, the middleware matches incoming requests against Cedar action mappings using req.originalUrl, which includes the query string, while Express routes requests using only the path component. The middleware uses req.originalUrl to match incoming requests against Cedar action mappings. In Express, req.originalUrl includes the query string, while route matching uses only the path. This creates a divergence between what Cedar authorizes and what Express executes. When an application defines separate actions for overlapping path prefixes with different authorization requirements (for example, GET /users for listing all users with admin-only access, and GET /users/{id} for retrieving a single user with any authenticated user access), an actor can append a query string to bypass the more restrictive policy. Sending GET /users/?x=1 causes the middleware to match against /users/{id} (with id parameter set to ?x=1) and evaluate the less restrictive action, while Express routes the request to the /users list handler. This allows inappropriate access to the more restrictive endpoint. This issue has been addressed in version 0.30. Some workarounds are available. Validate and sanitize incoming request paths before they reach the authorization middleware. Ensure that applications do not rely solely on the middleware for authorization when defining multiple actions on overlapping path prefixes with different permission levels.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS