Dynamic Client Registration feature creates public clients with client_secret
Published: June 04, 2026
SECURITY IDENTIFIERS
- CVE: CVE-2026-44476 (NVD)
- GHSA: GHSA-m6vc-f87m-cc2h
GEM
SEVERITY
CVSS v3.x: 6.3 (Medium)
UNAFFECTED VERSIONS
< 1.9.0
PATCHED VERSIONS
>= 1.10.0
DESCRIPTION
Impact
The DynamicClientRegistrationController#register action hard-codes
confidential: false when creating applications
(dynamic_client_registration_controller.rb:18-25), yet the response
includes a client_secret and advertises token_endpoint_auth_methods_supported:
["client_secret_basic", "client_secret_post"].
Because Doorkeeper's Application.by_uid_and_secret treats a
blank/missing secret as valid for non-confidential (public) clients, an
attacker who knows only the client_id (which is public information)
can authenticate as the dynamically-registered client at the token endpoint.
Note that Dynamic Client Registration is opt-in feature which is disabled by default so only projects that explicitly enabled it are affected.
Steps to Reproduce
- Enable dynamic client registration in the initializer
- POST /oauth/registration with client_name, redirect_uris, and scope
- Observe: response returns client_secret, but the created Doorkeeper::Application has confidential: false
- Call
Doorkeeper::Application.by_uid_and_secret(client_id, nil)— it returns the application (credentials bypass) - POST /oauth/token with grant_type=client_credentials and only client_id (no client_secret) — the token endpoint issues an access token without any secret verification
Workarounds
Upgrade existing applications created with a Dynamic Client registration
to have confidential: true
RELATED
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord/SearchResults?query=CVE-2026-44476
- https://rubygems.org/gems/doorkeeper-openid_connect/versions/1.10.0
- https://github.com/doorkeeper-gem/doorkeeper-openid_connect/releases/tag/v1.10.0
- https://advisories.gitlab.com/gem/doorkeeper-openid_connect/CVE-2026-44476
- https://github.com/doorkeeper-gem/doorkeeper-openid_connect/security/advisories/GHSA-m6vc-f87m-cc2h
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-m6vc-f87m-cc2h
