A possible security vulnerability has been identified in Apache Kafka.

By default, the broker property `sasl.oauthbearer.jwt.validator.class` is set to `org.apache.kafka.common.security.oauthbearer.DefaultJwtValidator`. It accepts any JWT token without validating its signature, issuer, or audience. An attacker can generate a JWT token from any issuer with the `preferred_username` set to any user, and the broker will accept it.

We advise the Kafka users using kafka v4.1.0 or v4.1.1 to set the config `sasl.oauthbearer.jwt.validator.class` to `org.apache.kafka.common.security.oauthbearer.BrokerJwtValidator` explicitly to avoid this vulnerability. Since Kafka v4.1.2 and v4.2.0 and later, the issue is fixed and will correctly validate the JWT token.

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Mon, 20 Apr 2026 16:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Apache
Apache kafka
Vendors & Products Apache
Apache kafka

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 9.1, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N'}

ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A possible security vulnerability has been identified in Apache Kafka. By default, the broker property `sasl.oauthbearer.jwt.validator.class` is set to `org.apache.kafka.common.security.oauthbearer.DefaultJwtValidator`. It accepts any JWT token without validating its signature, issuer, or audience. An attacker can generate a JWT token from any issuer with the `preferred_username` set to any user, and the broker will accept it. We advise the Kafka users using kafka v4.1.0 or v4.1.1 to set the config `sasl.oauthbearer.jwt.validator.class` to `org.apache.kafka.common.security.oauthbearer.BrokerJwtValidator` explicitly to avoid this vulnerability. Since Kafka v4.1.2 and v4.2.0 and later, the issue is fixed and will correctly validate the JWT token.
Title Apache Kafka: Missing JWT token validation in OAUTHBEARER authentication
Weaknesses CWE-1285
References

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: apache

Published:

Updated: 2026-04-20T14:30:30.936Z

Reserved: 2026-03-23T03:14:53.527Z

Link: CVE-2026-33557

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-04-20T13:38:51.117Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-04-20T14:16:18.780

Modified: 2026-04-20T16:16:43.887

Link: CVE-2026-33557

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-04-20T16:45:11Z

Weaknesses