Eclipse Vert.x up to 4.5.34/5.0.12/5.1.9/5.2.0 ChainAuthHandler postAuthentication privileges management

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Eclipse Vert.x up to 4.5.34/5.0.12/5.1.9/5.2.0. It has been rated as critical. Impacted is the function postAuthentication of the component ChainAuthHandler. Performing a manipulation results in privileges management. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-102460. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Eclipse Vert.x up to 4.5.34/5.0.12/5.1.9/5.2.0. It has been classified as critical. This affects the function postAuthentication of the component ChainAuthHandler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a privileges management vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-269. The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In Eclipse Vert.x versions [4.0.0, 4.5.34] or [5.0.0,5.0.12] or [5.1.0,5.1.9] or [5.2.0, 5.2.0], a scope bypass vulnerability exists in Eclipse Vert.x Web's ChainAuthHandler when used with scope-requiring authentication handlers such as JWTAuthHandler or OAuth2AuthHandler. When a user is already authenticated on the routing context by a preceding handler in the request pipeline, ChainAuthHandler skips all scope validation configured via withScope() or withScopes(). This affects both any() and all() chain modes. The root cause is that postAuthentication() relies on internal state that is only set during the authenticate() phase, which is skipped entirely for pre-authenticated users. In any() mode, the absence of this state causes the method to fall through without delegating scope checks to any handler. In all() mode, scope checks are unconditionally skipped. This allows a user with a valid token but insufficient scopes to access resources protected by scope requirements, provided they were authenticated by an earlier handler in the pipeline. The most common trigger is overlapping authentication handlers on nested routes, where a parent route authenticates broadly and a child route uses a chain to enforce specific scopes. The impacted component Maven coordinate is io.vertx:vertx-web

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-102460 since 09/29/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 10/14/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1068 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• Eclipse

Name

• Vert.x

Version

• 4.5.0
• 4.5.1
• 4.5.2
• 4.5.3
• 4.5.4
• 4.5.5
• 4.5.6
• 4.5.7
• 4.5.8
• 4.5.9
• 4.5.10
• 4.5.11
• 4.5.12
• 4.5.13
• 4.5.14
• 4.5.15
• 4.5.16
• 4.5.17
• 4.5.18
• 4.5.19
• 4.5.20
• 4.5.21
• 4.5.22
• 4.5.23
• 4.5.24
• 4.5.25
• 4.5.26
• 4.5.27
• 4.5.28
• 4.5.29
• 4.5.30
• 4.5.31
• 4.5.32
• 4.5.33
• 4.5.34
• 5.0
• 5.0.0
• 5.0.1
• 5.0.2
• 5.0.3
• 5.0.4
• 5.0.5
• 5.0.6
• 5.0.7
• 5.0.8
• 5.0.9
• 5.0.10
• 5.0.11
• 5.0.12
• 5.1
• 5.1.0
• 5.1.1
• 5.1.2
• 5.1.3
• 5.1.4
• 5.1.5
• 5.1.6
• 5.1.7
• 5.1.8
• 5.1.9
• 5.2.0

License

• open-source

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