Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessObtain one validly signed SAML message
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DeliveryPrepend forged unsigned assertion for target identity
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ExploitSubmit to SP ACS endpoint
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ExecutionSignature validates against original, identity read from forgery
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ImpactAuthenticated as impersonated/admin user
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A04:2025 - Cryptographic Failures
ASVS 5.0
V11 - Cryptography Signature verification
|
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires the attacker to possess at least one validly signed SAML message issued by the trusted IdP for the target SP (this is the CVSS 4.0 AT:P attack requirement) - for example a legitimate low-privilege assertion, a replayed capture, or a valid message from any account. Given that prerequisite, no authentication to the SP (PR:N) and no user interaction (UI:N) are needed, and it works against default configurations of passport-saml-encrypted through 0.1.13 because the verify-vs-extract XPath mismatch is inherent to the library, not a toggle. Limiting factors: the required signed sample, and any deployment that additionally enforces single-assertion or response-level signature binding would blunt the prepending technique. |
| Impact | This is a genuine high-severity authentication/integrity issue, not a CVSS-inflation case: the CVSS 4.0 base score of 9.1 reflects network vector, low complexity, no privileges, no user interaction, and high confidentiality and integrity impact (VC:H/VI:H), with VA:N confirming there is no availability effect. The key discriminator is AT:P (Attack Requirements: Present) - the attacker must first obtain at least one validly signed SAML message from the target IdP, which is the practical gating condition and lowers the realism somewhat versus a truly zero-prerequisite bug. No EPSS score, KEV entry, or POC was supplied, so exploitation likelihood signals are absent; the risk here rests on the well-understood, reproducible nature of XSW attacks rather than on observed exploitation. Note the input Tags include 'Denial Of Service', which conflicts with the vector (VA:N, no availability impact) - the real impact is credential/identity forgery - and 'Jwt Attack', which is inaccurate since this is a SAML XML-signature attack, not a JWT one. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker who has captured or been legitimately issued one valid signed SAML assertion (for example, a low-privilege account or an intercepted assertion) edits the SAML response to prepend a second, unsigned <Assertion> naming an administrator's identity. The SP's signature check still validates against the original genuine assertion, but the identity-extraction XPath reads the forged prepended assertion, logging the attacker in as the victim/admin. Because the attack is fully server-reachable over the network with no user interaction, it can be scripted once a single signed sample is obtained; no public POC is currently identified. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Sep 10, 2026
Authentication bypass in the passport-saml-encrypted Node.js/Passport SAML strategy (versions through 0.1.13) lets a remote attacker impersonate arbitrary users via classic XML Signature Wrapping (XSW). Because signature verification and assertion extraction perform independent, uncorrelated XPath lookups, an attacker who possesses any single validly signed SAML message can prepend a forged, unsigned assertion that the application accepts as the authenticated identity while the genuine signature still validates against the untouched original assertion. No public exploit identified at time of analysis, and the flaw is not in CISA KEV; reported by VulnCheck.
RemediationAI
No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis - the references point to an open tracking issue (#30) and the vulnerable source, not to a fixed release. Until a fixed version ships, the most effective compensating control is to move signature validation so it is cryptographically bound to the consumed assertion: enforce that the SAML response is signed (not just the assertion), reject any response containing more than one assertion, and validate using a hardened SAML library that resolves the signed element by ID and rejects wrapping (e.g. migrating off passport-saml-encrypted to a maintained, XSW-hardened strategy) - the trade-off is integration/testing effort and potential IdP metadata reconfiguration. As a deployment control, restrict the SP's trust to a single expected IdP certificate and disable acceptance of unsigned or multiply-signed assertions; if the 'encrypted' assertion feature is not required, prefer a library whose verify/extract path shares one canonical node reference. Monitor the krakenjs repository and issue #30 for a tagged patched release and upgrade as soon as one is published.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
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Technical ContextAI · show details
The affected component is passport-saml-encrypted (CPE cpe:2.3:a:krakenjs:passport-saml-encrypted), a variant of the passport-saml SAML 2.0 authentication strategy for the Passport middleware in Node.js. The root cause is CWE-347 (Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature) manifesting as XML Signature Wrapping: the library validates the XML-DSig on the SAML response with one XPath query (lib/saml.js:256) and then reads the subject/attributes from a separately located assertion (lib/saml.js:328) without confirming that the node it authenticated is the same node it consumed. SAML assertions are signed XML; when a parser trusts a Reference URI or document-order lookup rather than binding verification to the exact signed element, an attacker can graft an additional attacker-controlled assertion elsewhere in the document so the verifier and the consumer resolve different elements.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
AC:H because the attacker must first obtain a validly signed SAML message; PR:N/UI:N as no SP auth or interaction is needed; C:H/I:H for identity impersonation, A:N as no availability impact.
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
DescriptionCVE.org
passport-saml-encrypted through 0.1.13 contains an XML signature wrapping vulnerability where signature verification and assertion extraction use independent XPath lookups with no cross-validation. Attackers holding any validly signed SAML message can prepend a forged unsigned assertion that gets accepted as the verified identity while the genuine signature validates against the original assertion.
Executive ViewAI
The passport-saml-encrypted Node.js library (versions through 0.1.13) contains a critical authentication bypass enabling remote attackers to impersonate arbitrary users by exploiting XML Signature Wrapping in SAML assertion processing. Organizations relying on this library for SAML-based identity management face immediate risk of unauthorized account access across all connected applications, as attackers can forge valid authentication claims that the library accepts without detection.
No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Immediate interim mitigation: discontinue passport-saml-encrypted and migrate to an actively maintained SAML library with current security updates. If immediate discontinuation is not operationally feasible, deploy a SAML validation gateway or reverse-proxy middleware that independently performs signature verification and assertion extraction using a single, audited code path to eliminate the signature-wrapping attack surface. Additionally, implement continuous monitoring of authentication logs to detect anomalous user impersonations, unexpected identity claims, or authentication patterns deviating from baseline behavior.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
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EUVD-2026-75632
GHSA-8vr8-32m4-xw8q
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB