CVE-2026-55735: Guardian.revoke/3 acts on unverified token claims, allowing forged-token session revocation

Published Aug 1, 2026
·
Updated

Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature in ueberauth guardian allows an unauthenticated attacker to revoke a victim's session with a forged token.

Guardian.revoke/3 in lib/guardian.ex decodes the supplied token with peek/1, which performs no signature verification (it only base64-decodes the JWT header and payload). The resulting unverified claims are forwarded directly to the configured token module's revoke callback and the implementation's onrevoke callback, a state-mutating sink. The sibling operations refresh/2 and exchange/4 both call decodeandverify first, so the signature is checked before anything acts on the claims; revoke/3 is the only state-mutating path that acts on claims without verifying the signature.

An attacker who knows or guesses a victim's identifying claim values (jti, sub) can forge a JWT carrying those claims, sign it with an arbitrary key, and submit it to any endpoint that funnels a caller-supplied token into Guardian.revoke/3 (the standard logout / session-revocation pattern). When the token module mutates state keyed by the claims (whitelist deletion or blacklist insertion, for example a GuardianDb-style store), the victim's legitimate session is evicted. This is an unauthenticated session-revocation denial of service; the attacker never needs the signing secret.

This issue affects guardian: from 1.0.0 before 2.4.1.

Affected Software

1 affected component
guardian>1.0.0<=2.4.1

Remediation

Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.

  1. Upgrade

    Upgrade guardian to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 2.4.1
  2. Configuration

    Modify Guardian.revoke/3 so it verifies the JWT cryptographic signature before decoding/using any claims (i.e., do not use peek/1 without signature verification; ensure signature verification occurs for revoke/3 similar to refresh/2 and exchange/4 via decode_and_verify).

    Guardian (lib/guardian.ex) revoke/3 JWT signature verification = enabled
  3. Compensating control

    Restrict the revoke/session-revocation endpoint that accepts caller-supplied JWTs so unauthenticated users cannot submit tokens to Guardian.revoke/3 (e.g., require authenticated access/authorization or otherwise gate the logout/revocation route).

Event History

Aug 1, 2026
CVE Published
via MITRE·06:46 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·06:46 PM
DescriptionWeakness
Data Sourced
via NVD·07:16 PM
DescriptionSeverityWeakness
Free Weekly Intel

Don't miss critical vulnerabilities

Join thousands of security professionals who receive our weekly digest of trending CVEs, zero-days, and exploited vulnerabilities.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2026-55735?

CVE-2026-55735 has a risk score of 45, indicating moderate severity.

2

How do I fix CVE-2026-55735?

To fix CVE-2026-55735, ensure proper signature verification is implemented for token claims in the guardian library.

3

What impact does CVE-2026-55735 have on my application?

CVE-2026-55735 allows unauthenticated attackers to revoke user sessions, compromising user access.

4

Which versions of Guardian are affected by CVE-2026-55735?

CVE-2026-55735 affects versions of Guardian that utilize the Guardian.revoke/3 function without proper verification.

5

Is my data safe from CVE-2026-55735?

Due to the vulnerability in CVE-2026-55735, user sessions may be at risk, potentially exposing data to unauthorized access.

Contact

SecAlerts Pty Ltd.
132 Wickham Terrace
Fortitude Valley,
QLD 4006, Australia
info@secalerts.co
By using SecAlerts services, you agree to our services end-user license agreement. This website is safeguarded by reCAPTCHA and governed by the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. All names, logos, and brands of products are owned by their respective owners, and any usage of these names, logos, and brands for identification purposes only does not imply endorsement. If you possess any content that requires removal, please get in touch with us.
© 2026 SecAlerts Pty Ltd.
ABN: 70 645 966 203, ACN: 645 966 203