CVE-2026-53512 — Vulnerability in better-auth — CVE Details

### Am I affected? Users are affected if all of the following are true: - Their application uses `better-auth` and has enabled at least one of: `oidcProvider()` (imported from `better-auth/plugins/oidc-provider`), or `mcp()` (imported from `better-auth/plugins/mcp`). - Their application has at least one confidential OAuth client registered (any client with `type: "web" | "native" | "user-agent-based"` in the `oauthApplication` table, or any `trustedClients` entry without `type: "public"`). Public clients with PKCE are not affected. - Their application uses `better-auth` at a version below the patched release. If an application only uses `@better-auth/oauth-provider` (the canonical replacement for `oidc-provider`) and the `mcp` plugin is not enabled, it is not affected. Fix: 1. Upgrade to `better-auth@1.6.11` or later. 2. Migrate from the deprecated `oidcProvider()` to `@better-auth/oauth-provider` when feasible. The new package enforces client authentication on both grants by default. 3. If developers cannot upgrade their applications, see workarounds below. ### Summary The legacy `oidcProvider` and `mcp` plugins each expose an OAuth 2.0 token endpoint whose `refresh_token` grant authenticates the request entirely on possession of the bound `refreshToken` row and a matching `client_id`. Neither plugin verifies the registered confidential client's `client_secret` on the refresh path. An attacker who obtains any valid `refresh_token` (via database read, log capture, browser-side XSS, or CORS-amplified script in the mcp case) and the public `client_id` can mint fresh access tokens and rotated refresh tokens until the chain is revoked. ### Details RFC 6749 §6 and OAuth 2.1 §4.3 require confidential clients to authenticate to the token endpoint on every grant, including refresh. The same plugins' `authorization_code` grant correctly enforces `client_secret` (the oidc-provider via `verifyStoredClientSecret`, the mcp plugin via raw equality), which proves the omission on the refresh path is a regression rather than a design choice. Token rotation issues a new `refresh_token` with each call, so a single leaked refresh-token grants indefinite access until the row is revoked or its `refreshTokenExpiresAt` (default 7 days) passes; rotation refreshes that window each call. Two adjacent issues on the mcp surface ship in the same patch. The mcp `authorization_code` grant uses raw `===` for client-secret comparison and ignores the `storeClientSecret: "encrypted" | "hashed"` configuration; the fix routes both grants through `verifyStoredClientSecret`. The mcp `/mcp/token` endpoint sets `Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *` unconditionally, which amplifies the refresh bypass in browser contexts; the fix narrows the CORS allowlist. The newer `@better-auth/oauth-provider` package routes both grants through `validateClientCredentials` and is not affected. ### Patches Fixed in `better-auth@1.6.11`. The legacy `oidcProvider` and `mcp` token endpoints now require `client_secret` on the `refresh_token` grant for confidential clients, using the same constant-time comparison the `authorization_code` grant already used. Public clients are unaffected (they have no secret to enforce, and PKCE substitutes on the auth-code grant). The `Authorization: Basic` parser is fixed to follow RFC 6749 §2.3.1: the credential is split on the first colon and each half is percent-decoded. Client IDs and secrets that contain reserved characters now authenticate correctly. The `/mcp/token` endpoint's CORS configuration is narrowed in the same change (the wildcard `Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *` header is removed), matching the standalone `@better-auth/oauth-provider` package. The deprecated `oidc-provider` plugin remains deprecated. The recommended migration path is `@better-auth/oauth-provider`. ### Workarounds None of these close the bug fully without a code patch. - **Migrate to `@better-auth/oauth-provider`** if your deployment can adopt the new plugin. It enforces `client_secret` on both grants. - **Force all clients to public + PKCE**: set every client's `type: "public"` and require PKCE. The bug is unreachable when there is no `client_secret` to verify. - **Network-layer ingress restriction**: limit `/api/auth/oauth2/token` and `/api/auth/mcp/token` to known client IPs at the load balancer. Practical for server-to-server flows, not for end-user-device clients. - **Out-of-band refresh-token rotation**: on any suspicion of leak, run `db.deleteMany({ model: "oauthAccessToken", where: [{ field: "clientId", value: <id> }] })` to invalidate all refresh tokens for the affected client. - **For the mcp endpoint specifically**: drop the wildcard CORS at an upstream proxy and replace with a tight allowlist. ### Impact - **Indefinite confidential-client impersonation**: an attacker holding any valid `refresh_token` and the public `client_id` can mint access tokens and rotated refresh tokens indefinitely, until the row is revoked. Rotation refreshes the expiration window each call. - **Resource access at the user's authorized scope**: every minted access token carries the original user's authorization scope, so the attacker reads or writes whatever the resource server grants for that scope. ### Credit Reported by @subhanUmer. ### Resources - [CWE-306: Missing Authentication for Critical Function](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/306.html) - [CWE-287: Improper Authentication](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/287.html) - [CWE-345: Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/345.html) - [CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/863.html) - [RFC 6749 §6: Refreshing an Access Token](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6749#section-6) - [OAuth 2.1 §4.3: Refresh Token](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-oauth-v2-1#section-4.3)