# CVE-2024-8901: Lack of JWT issuer and signer validation

> Attackers can bypass OIDC authentication by spoofing JWTs if ALB targets are publicly exposed, affecting users of the deprecated AWS ALB Route Directive Adapter.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.9 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:L/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 21 Oct 2024
- **Updated:** 14 Oct 2025
- **Also known as:** GO-2024-3210

## What is CVE-2024-8901?

CVE-2024-8901 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Amazon AWS ALB Route Directive Adapter For Istio, published on 21 Oct 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The  AWS ALB Route Directive Adapter For Istio repo https://github.com/awslabs/aws-alb-route-directive-adapter-for-istio/tree/master  provides an OIDC authentication mechanism that was integrated into the open source Kubeflow project. The adapter uses JWT for authentication, but lacks proper signer and issuer validation. In deployments of ALB that ignore security best practices, where ALB targets are directly exposed to internet traffic, an actor can provide a JWT signed by an untrusted entity in order to spoof OIDC-federated sessions and successfully bypass authentication.

The repository/package has been deprecated, is end of life, and is no longer supported. As a security best practice, ensure that your ELB targets (e.g. EC2 Instances, Fargate Tasks etc.) do not have public IP addresses. Ensure any forked or derivative code validate that the signer attribute in the JWT match the ARN of the Application Load Balancer that the service is configured to use.

Weakness: CWE-290 (Authentication Bypass by Spoofing)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-8901?

1 open source package ship an affected version, including github.com/awslabs/aws-alb-route-directive-adapter-for-istio.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `github.com/awslabs/aws-alb-route-directive-adapter-for-istio` | Go | All versions | None |

## How do I fix CVE-2024-8901?

Product is end of life, replace it.

## Is CVE-2024-8901 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-8901 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-8901 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-8901 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Amazon AWS ALB Route Directive Adapter For Istio, published on 21 Oct 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-8901 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- github.com/awslabs/aws-alb-route-directive-adapter-for-istio (Go): affected all versions; no fix listed

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-8901/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-8901/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-8901
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-8901
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-8901

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-8901/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.