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High, CVSS 7.5amended

kin-openapi: Nil-pointer dereference panic in openapi3filter for OpenAPI 3.1 array schemas missing items

CVE-2026-97394GHSA-p6wj-qrr4-pgh5

What to do

Vendor fix available. Upgrade each affected package to the fixed version on its release line (github.com/getkin/kin-openapi 0.143.0), redeploy, then verify what is actually installed.

This page has no inventory attached, so it cannot say whether you are affected. A vendor fix is not proof that your deployment is fixed.

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Affected packages

Sources

Severity and exploitation
Exploitation
No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.
CVSS
7.5 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS
  • CVE-2026-97394: 0.61% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 49.51 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.
Source description

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Summary A nil-pointer dereference in openapi3filter lets any unauthenticated client crash a request handler with a single HTTP request against an OpenAPI 3.1 operation that declares type: array without items. OpenAPI 3.1 (JSON Schema 2020-12) permits omitting items, and doc.Validate() accepts such schemas with Schema.Items == nil. Request/response decoders then dereference Items with no nil check. The panic is deterministic (100%) on every request to the affected operation. There is no recover() in openapi3filter; under handlers without per-request recover the process can exit. Details Spec-validation asymmetry. OpenAPI 3.0 rejects array schemas that omit items (openapi3/schema.go around the TypeArray / newSchemaItemsRequired branch). For OpenAPI 3.1, T.Validate enables jsonSchema2020ValidationEnabled, so that check is skipped and Schema.Items remains nil after a clean doc.Validate(). Vulnerable decoder. The primary request-side crash is in UrlencodedBodyDecoder (still present on…

Dates and revisions
Published by the source
Last modified by the source
Source last checked
  1. Revision 2 · amended ·

    Amended from ghsa record GHSA-p6wj-qrr4-pgh5

  2. Revision 1 · created ·

    Published from osv record GHSA-p6wj-qrr4-pgh5

Agent brief

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2026-97394

Advisory: kin-openapi: Nil-pointer dereference panic in openapi3filter for OpenAPI 3.1 array schemas missing items
IDs: CVE-2026-97394, GHSA-p6wj-qrr4-pgh5
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2026-97394 (revision 2, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:32 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.5)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: github.com/getkin/kin-openapi 0.143.0. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/getkin/kin-openapi: affected >= 0.136.0, < 0.143.0; fixed in 0.143.0

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/getkin/kin-openapi: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on github.com/getkin/kin-openapi.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-p6wj-qrr4-pgh5 (OSV record GHSA-p6wj-qrr4-pgh5 lists affected ranges: Go github.com/getkin/kin-openapi >=0.136.0 <0.143.0 (fixed))
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-p6wj-qrr4-pgh5 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-p6wj-qrr4-pgh5 lists affected ranges: Go github.com/getkin/kin-openapi >=0.136.0 <0.143.0)

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