CVE-2018-6873
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe Auth0 authentication service before 2017-10-15 allows privilege escalation because the JWT audience is not validated.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe Auth0 authentication service before October 15, 2017 did not validate the JWT audience ('aud' claim, allowing attackers to craft tokens with manipulated audience values and achieve privilege escalation. The missing validation means any JWT with a valid signature but wrong audience could be accepted.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 8.10.1CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Auth0.js version in useInspect your package.json file, node_modules/auth0-js/package.json, or the bundled script version. Look for the 'version' field in the auth0-js dependency.Affected if The installed Auth0.js version is 8.10.1 or earlier (any version <= 8.10.1).
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Verify JWT validation includes audience claim checkReview your application's JWT validation code that processes Auth0 tokens. Search for code that validates the 'aud' claim in the decoded JWT payload.Affected if The JWT validation logic does not explicitly verify that the 'aud' claim matches your expected audience identifier, or no audience validation exists.
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Confirm library update timelineCheck the last update date of your Auth0.js dependency. Review your dependency management system or lock files for update timestamps.Affected if The Auth0.js library has not been updated since before October 15, 2017, and remains at a vulnerable version.
You are affected if your deployed Auth0.js version is 8.10.1 or earlier AND your JWT validation does not perform explicit 'aud' claim verification.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scopedUpdate Auth0 libraries/SDKs to versions released after 2017-10-15 that enforce audience validation, or explicitly implement 'aud' claim verification in JWT validation logic to ensure it matches the expected audience identifier.
auth0-js version 8.12.0 or later (specifically any version released after October 2017)
- 1. Check the current version of auth0.js in your project by examining package.json or running npm list auth0-js
- 2. Identify all locations where auth0.js is used (client-side applications, CDNs, dependencies)
- 3. Update the auth0.js dependency to version 8.12.0 or later by running: npm install auth0-js@^8.12.0
- 4. Verify the upgrade by running npm list auth0-js to confirm the new version
- 5. Test authentication flows to ensure the JWT audience validation is working correctly
- 6. If using a package manager like yarn, run yarn upgrade auth0-js to update
- 7. Rebuild and redeploy any applications that bundle auth0.js
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-6873 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-6873 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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