CVE-2026-48031Go Restful API Boilerplate: Hardcoded JWT Secret "random" Allows Token Forgery
- 9.1CriticalCVSS base score
- 0.63%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 49% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
go-base is a Go RESTful API Boilerplate template with JWT Authentication, backed by PostgreSQL. In versions prior to 2026-05-18, the JWT signing secret is hardcoded to the known string "random", letting any attacker who reads the public repository forge tokens for arbitrary users, including admin roles, and completely bypass authentication on all protected endpoints. This value is set in two places: the dev.env template (line 10) and a programmatic fallback in cmd/serve.go (line 35), so the application uses it even when no .env file is present. The original mitigation in auth/jwt/tokenauth.go (lines 22 to 25) only caught the exact string "random", letting other weak secrets through, and replaced it with an in-memory key that was not persisted, invalidating all tokens on every restart and effectively causing a denial-of-service. This issue has been fixed in version 2026-05-18.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Show the exploits1
References tagged exploit1 reference
- https://github.com/dhax/go-base/security/advisories/GHSA-mqq6-462x-jxmm (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMexploit
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 3 months later
· 3 months later
Published
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Critical9.1 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 3.1 | Critical9.1 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.63% · top 49% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 9.1.
Affected products
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Gogithub.com/dhax/go-baseGHSA-mqq6-462x-jxmm (opens in a new tab)
References
References3
- https://github.com/dhax/go-base/security/advisories/GHSA-mqq6-462x-jxmm (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMexploit
- https://github.com/dhax/go-base/pull/31 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/dhax/go-base/commit/cc82b9740fa6b08e0fad409cd4b418e240dd0e00 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-52408 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-mqq6-462x-jxmm (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-48031)Record last updated .