CVE-2023-22482 JWT audience claim is not verified

What is CVE-2023-22482?

CVE-2023-22482 is a critical missing authorization vulnerability in Argoproj Argo Cd, published on 25 Jan 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Argo CD is a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes. Versions of Argo CD starting with v1.8.2 and prior to 2.3.13, 2.4.19, 2.5.6, and 2.6.0-rc-3 are vulnerable to an improper authorization bug causing the API to accept certain invalid tokens. OIDC providers include an `aud` (audience) claim in signed tokens. The value of that claim specifies the intended audience(s) of the token (i.e. the service or services which are meant to accept the token). Argo CD _does_ validate that the token was signed by Argo CD's configured OIDC provider. But Argo CD _does not_ validate the audience claim, so it will accept tokens that are not intended for Argo CD. If Argo CD's configured OIDC provider also serves other audiences (for example, a file storage service), then Argo CD will accept a token intended for one of those other audiences. Argo CD will grant the user privileges based on the token's `groups` claim, even though those groups were not intended to be used by Argo CD. This bug also increases the impact of a stolen token. If an attacker steals a valid token for a different audience, they can use it to access Argo CD. A patch for this vulnerability has been released in versions 2.6.0-rc3, 2.5.6, 2.4.19, and 2.3.13. There are no workarounds.

Weakness: CWE-863

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-22482?

10 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/argoproj/argo-cd and github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2. It affects 1 product.

Products include Argoproj Argo Cd.

How do I fix CVE-2023-22482?

Upgrade github.com/argoproj/argo-cd to a fixed version for your release line: 2.3.14, 2.4.20, 2.5.8 or 2.6.0-rc5.

Upgrade, and check permissions on every request on the server, not only in the interface. More about Missing authorization.

Is CVE-2023-22482 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-22482 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Argoproj Argo Cd

• CVE-2025-55190 Argo CD: Project API Token Exposes Repository Credentials Critical 10.0
• CVE-2022-29165 Argo CD will blindly trust JWT claims if anonymous access is enabled Critical 10.0
• CVE-2023-40029 Cluster secret might leak in cluster details page in Argo CD Critical 9.9
• CVE-2022-24768 Improper access control allows admin privilege escalation in Argo CD Critical 9.9
• CVE-2024-21652 Argo CD vulnerable to Bypassing of Brute Force Protection via Application Crash and In-Memory Data Loss Critical 9.8

All Argoproj Argo Cd vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-q9hr-j4rf-8fjc, GO-2023-1520.