CVE-2026-97394kin-openapi: Nil-pointer dereference panic in openapi3filter for OpenAPI 3.1 array schemas missing items
- 7.5HighCVSS base score
- 0.61%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 50% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
kin-openapi is a Go project for handling OpenAPI files. From 0.136.0 until 0.143.0, openapi3filter accepts OpenAPI 3.1 array schemas without an items keyword and then dereferences the nil Schema.Items value while decoding application/x-www-form-urlencoded or multipart/form-data request bodies, response headers, and other array parameter surfaces. A remote unauthenticated client can reach an affected operation with a nonempty request or matching response and deterministically trigger a nil-pointer panic during ValidateRequest or ValidateResponse. OpenAPI 3.0 documents are not affected because document validation rejects arrays without items, and JSON request bodies use a different decoder path. This issue is fixed in version 0.143.0.
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
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 21 days later
· 21 days later
Published
- 5 days later
· 5 days later
Record updated
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 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.61% · top 50% of all CVEs (15 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.5.
Affected products
- affected >= 0.136.0, < 0.143.0
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Gogithub.com/getkin/kin-openapiGHSA-p6wj-qrr4-pgh5 (opens in a new tab)
References
References4
- https://github.com/getkin/kin-openapi/security/advisories/GHSA-p6wj-qrr4-pgh5 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/getkin/kin-openapi/commit/30e292371a89ca6d1f91a9553e0aa518b49f838d (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/getkin/kin-openapi/releases/tag/v0.143.0 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/opnsense/core/security/advisories/GHSA-26cj-h9rj-g5pf (opens in a new tab)exploit
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-2026-102143 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-p6wj-qrr4-pgh5 (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-2026-97394)Record last updated .