GHSA-c33x-vcv4-vg3g - Cedar: JSON template is in scope missing slot-id validation allows link panic and decision divergence
Cedar users must be using all of the following features to be affected by this advisory: JSON format policies, policy templates, and the `is in` scope condition. This advisory only affects JSON-formatted Cedar policy templates containing `is in` scope conditions that are **malformed** according to the Cedar syntax. It does **not** affect syntactically well-formed policies.
Users of Cedar who author policies in the JSON format were able to write Cedar policies using the `is in` condition with an incorrect slot identifier in the principal and resource scope constraints (e.g., `?principal` in the resource scope constraint) even though this is not allowed when parsing policies from the Cedar policy syntax. Internally, the slot identifiers were silently corrected (e.g. `?resource` is placed in the resource scope constraint).
If the policy contains *exactly one slot* in either the principal or resource position, then any attempt to create a linked policy from the template results in an error: the internal representation of the template does not contain the slot identifier as written in the malformed JSON policy (it has been corrected silently), so attempting to fill that slot is an error. If instead the template is linked using slot identifier expected internally (i.e., not what is written in the JSON template), the linking will initially succeed, but a subsequent invariant violation will cause a panic.
When the template contains *slots in both the principal and resource* position, then both slots will be present in the internal representation: linking succeeds, but with each slot bound to the value intended for the other (the silent correction). The linked policy is then semantically different from the malformed policy the user intended, and any subsequent authorization decision made against that policy may lead to accesses being unintentionally allowed or denied.
Concretely, consider the following JSON format policy template intended to deny users in a particular p
LOW
Severity & confidence
Source severitylow
Platform severitylow
Confidencemedium
Exploitationunknown
CVSS-
Affected
Vendorscedar-policy@cedar-policy
Productscedar-policy@cedar-policy/cedar-wasm
Reporting sources (1)
GitHub Security Advisories
Timeline & provenance
Published2026-10-29T16:35:04
Last updated2026-11-03T20:13:34
Ingested2026-10-29T16:43:21
FreshnessNEAR-REAL-TIME
Threat typeadvisory
Recommended action
Review the advisory and upgrade affected packages to the first patched version.
Next steps
- Identify affected systems in your environment.
- Apply the vendor patch or mitigation guidance.
- Review logs for indicators described in the advisory.
- Follow the affected vendor/product to track updates.
Confidence explanation
Reported by a single or secondary source; treat as indicative, verify before acting.
Source type: vendor ยท Original: GitHub Security Advisories