CVE-2026-73421

NextAuth.js: Configuration errors can cause existence-based auth checks to fail open (auth object populated with an error)

State
Published
Severity
9.1 Critical
Published
Aug 13, 2026
Updated
Aug 18, 2026
Reserved
Aug 12, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

NextAuth.js provides authentication for Next.js. From next-auth 5.0.0-beta.0 until 5.0.0-beta.32, applications that gate access by checking only for the existence of the auth object returned by the auth() wrapper can fail open when Auth.js has a server configuration error. In middleware, Route Handlers, React Server Components, and other auth() entry points, a non-OK session response is parsed into a truthy error object instead of null, so checks such as !!auth and if (req.auth) evaluate to true for unauthenticated requests. A provider missing both the issuer and authorization endpoint triggers InvalidEndpoints, and an unset AUTH_SECRET or another server configuration error can produce the same behavior. There is no impact while configuration is valid, but after a deployment becomes misconfigured, routes protected only by session existence silently grant access to every visitor. This issue is fixed in next-auth 5.0.0-beta.32.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
4.09.1 CriticalCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:NGitHub_M

Weaknesses

  • CWE-285 Improper Authorization
  • CWE-636 Not Failing Securely ('Failing Open')

Affected Products

ProductVersions
next-authnextauthjs
  • >= 5.0.0-beta.4, < 5.0.0-beta.32Affected

References

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