Security Resilience

CVE-2023-41900

Auth Bypass in Eclipse Jetty 9.4.21 – 9.4.52

Public PoCAuth Bypass
Published
15 September 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 3.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0092 59th percentile
Risk Priority 32 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-41900 is a low-severity Weak Authentication (CWE-1390) vulnerability in Eclipse Jetty. Its CVSS base score is 3.5 (Low).

Operationally, ranked in the top 41% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Jetty is a Java based web server and servlet engine. Versions 9.4.21 through 9.4.51, 10.0.15, and 11.0.15 are vulnerable to weak authentication. If a Jetty `OpenIdAuthenticator` uses the optional nested `LoginService`, and that `LoginService` decides to revoke an already authenticated…

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user, then the current request will still treat the user as authenticated. The authentication is then cleared from the session and subsequent requests will not be treated as authenticated. So a request on a previously authenticated session could be allowed to bypass authentication after it had been rejected by the `LoginService`. This impacts usages of the jetty-openid which have configured a nested `LoginService` and where that `LoginService` will is capable of rejecting previously authenticated users. Versions 9.4.52, 10.0.16, and 11.0.16 have a patch for this issue.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-36479Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2023-40167Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2023-36478Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2026-5795Same product: Eclipse Jetty
CVE-2024-22201Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2023-26048Same product: Eclipse Jetty
CVE-2024-8184Same product: Eclipse Jetty
CVE-2024-13009Same product: Eclipse Jetty
CVE-2024-6763Same product: Eclipse Jetty
CVE-2024-6762Same product: Eclipse Jetty

Affected Assets

eclipse
jetty
9.4.21 — 9.4.52 · 10.0.0 — 10.0.16 · 11.0.0 — 11.0.16
debian
debian linux
11.0, 12.0

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-287 CWE-1390

Detects unauthorized successful logons resulting from improper authentication implementations.

addresses: CWE-287 CWE-1390

Documented IA policy and procedures require proper authentication mechanisms to be defined and followed, reducing improper authentication.

addresses: CWE-287 CWE-1390

Requires adaptive authentication under specific conditions, directly strengthening authentication mechanisms against improper or insufficient authentication.

addresses: CWE-287 CWE-1390

Requires unique identification and authentication of organizational users, directly preventing improper authentication.

addresses: CWE-287 CWE-1390

Directly requires implementation of compliant authentication mechanisms to cryptographic modules, preventing improper authentication.

addresses: CWE-287

Documented procedures ensure personnel are trained on authentication mechanisms, tangibly lowering the risk of improper authentication being exploited.

addresses: CWE-287

Security awareness training instructs users on secure authentication practices and avoiding credential compromise.

addresses: CWE-287

Training on authentication mechanisms and best practices decreases the occurrence of improper authentication.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

blocks

Mandating segregated approval and oversight for non-human identities reduces the chance that weak or orphaned credentials can be exploited for unauthorized authentication.

blocks

A.5.17 directly mandates non-guessable unique secrets, identity verification before issuance, secure transmission, immediate default changes, strong password enforcement, no reuse, and protected storage/transmission, which stops exploitation of most insufficient-proof cases in CWE-1390; the bounded remainder is non-password mechanisms (e.g. biometrics, certificates) or flawed protocol-level proof not covered by these password-centric rules.

blocks

Security requirements specified early and verified through testing drive the consistent implementation of authentication mechanisms, decreasing the likelihood that authentication steps are omitted or incorrectly applied.

blocks

A.8.26 explicitly requires identifying and addressing authentication-related requirements (including level of trust in identity via 8.5 and 5.17) as part of application development or acquisition, which prevents a slice of CWE-287 but leaves the dominant sufficiency-of-proof aspects (IA-2/IA-5) and many implementation defects untouched.

blocks

A.8.27 mandates security-by-design principles (least privilege, default-deny, never-trust/always-verify, MFA, end-to-end encryption of requests, distrust-external-input, secure session control, and explicit authentication/authorization in every layer), which directly stops most improper-authentication flaws from being exploitable; the bounded remainder is insufficient-proof cases that live only in the strength or correctness of the credential itself (IA-5/IA-2 territory).

blocks

A.8.5 directly mandates choosing sufficiently strong authentication techniques (including MFA, biometrics with fallback, brute-force protection, secure log-on procedures) that prove claimed identity, which stops exploitation of insufficient proof for most but not all cases in CWE-1390 (e.g. residual protocol-level or implementation-specific flaws remain possible).

Hardening callouts derived

DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.

  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-1390, a class-level weakness. Rules are authored against its narrower children: CWE-289, CWE-290, CWE-305, CWE-307, CWE-309.
  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-287, a class-level weakness. Rules are authored against its narrower children: CWE-295, CWE-306.

References