GHSA-r277-6w6q-xmqw

Summary

ValidationHandler.Load() in getkin/kin-openapi silently replaces a nil AuthenticationFunc with NoopAuthenticationFunc, which always returns nil without performing any credential check. Because this substitution happens unconditionally when the caller omits the field, every OpenAPI security requirement declared in the spec is silently satisfied for unauthenticated requests. An unauthenticated remote attacker can reach handlers for routes whose OpenAPI operation requires an API key, OAuth token, or any other security scheme if the application relies on ValidationHandler as its enforcement middleware.

Details

ValidationHandler is an HTTP middleware exported by openapi3filter that validates incoming requests and responses against a loaded OpenAPI specification. Its Load() method initialises default fields before the handler begins serving:

// openapi3filter/validation_handler.go:47-49
if h.AuthenticationFunc == nil {
    h.AuthenticationFunc = NoopAuthenticationFunc
}

NoopAuthenticationFunc is defined as:

// openapi3filter/validation_handler.go:17-18
func NoopAuthenticationFunc(context.Context, *AuthenticationInput) error { return nil }

It always returns nil, meaning every security scheme check it handles is automatically approved.

When a request arrives, ServeHTTP → before → validateRequest assembles a RequestValidationInput with the current AuthenticationFunc (now the no-op) injected into Options:

// openapi3filter/validation_handler.go:91-103
options := &Options{
    AuthenticationFunc: h.AuthenticationFunc,
}
requestValidationInput := &RequestValidationInput{
    Request:    r,
    PathParams: pathParams,
    Route:      route,
    Options:    options,
}
if err = ValidateRequest(r.Context(), requestValidationInput); err != nil {
    return err
}

Inside ValidateRequest, each security requirement calls options.AuthenticationFunc:

//...