diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 97fc02977..2a4a8c91c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 - Fixed issue where request path is stripped for proxied https requests [PR #1342](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1342) [THREESCALE-8426](https://issues.redhat.com/browse/THREESCALE-8426)
 - Bumped liquid-lua to version 0.2.0-2 [PR #1369](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1369) - includes: [THREESCALE-8483](https://issues.redhat.com/browse/THREESCALE-8483) and [THREESCALE-8484](https://issues.redhat.com/browse/THREESCALE-8484)
 - Fixed: APIcast could not retrieve the latest version of the proxy config [PR #1370](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1370) [THREESCALE-8485](https://issues.redhat.com/browse/THREESCALE-8485)
+- Fixed: JWKs without alg field cause the JWT validation process to fail [PR #1371](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1371) [THREESCALE-8601](https://issues.redhat.com/browse/THREESCALE-8601)
 
 ### Added
 
diff --git a/gateway/src/apicast/oauth/oidc.lua b/gateway/src/apicast/oauth/oidc.lua
index 60591b2d7..a61cabad6 100644
--- a/gateway/src/apicast/oauth/oidc.lua
+++ b/gateway/src/apicast/oauth/oidc.lua
@@ -186,7 +186,9 @@ function _M:verify(jwt, cache_key)
   local jwk_obj = find_jwk(jwt, self.keys)
 
   local pubkey = jwk_obj.pem
-  if jwk_obj.alg ~= jwt.header.alg then
+  -- Check the jwk for the alg field and if not present skip the validation as it is 
+  -- OPTIONAL according to https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7517#section-4.4
+  if jwk_obj.alg and jwk_obj.alg ~= jwt.header.alg then
     return false, '[jwt] alg mismatch'
   end
 
diff --git a/spec/oauth/oidc_spec.lua b/spec/oauth/oidc_spec.lua
index f65f22276..551996dec 100644
--- a/spec/oauth/oidc_spec.lua
+++ b/spec/oauth/oidc_spec.lua
@@ -45,6 +45,11 @@ describe('OIDC', function()
       config = { id_token_signing_alg_values_supported = { 'RS256', 'HS256' } },
       keys = { somekid = { pem = rsa.pub, alg = 'RS256' } },
     }
+    local oidc_config_no_alg = {
+      issuer = 'https://example.com/auth/realms/apicast',
+      config = { id_token_signing_alg_values_supported = { 'RS256', 'HS256' } },
+      keys = { somekid = { pem = rsa.pub } },
+    }
 
     before_each(function() jwt_validators.set_system_clock(function() return 0 end) end)
 
@@ -268,6 +273,25 @@ describe('OIDC', function()
       assert(credentials, err)
     end)
 
+    it('validation passes when jwk.alg does not exist', function()
+      local oidc = _M.new(oidc_config_no_alg)
+      local access_token = jwt:sign(rsa.private, {
+        header = { typ = 'JWT', alg = 'RS256', kid = 'somekid' },
+        payload = {
+          iss = oidc_config.issuer,
+          aud = 'notused',
+          azp = 'ce3b2e5e',
+          sub = 'someone',
+          nbf = 0,
+          exp = ngx.now() + 10,
+          typ = 'Bearer'
+        },
+      })
+
+      local credentials, _, _, err = oidc:transform_credentials({ access_token = access_token })
+      assert(credentials, err)
+    end)
+
     describe('getting client_id from any JWT claim', function()
 
       before_each(function()
diff --git a/t/apicast-oidc.t b/t/apicast-oidc.t
index ada1469eb..6cddbbdba 100644
--- a/t/apicast-oidc.t
+++ b/t/apicast-oidc.t
@@ -264,9 +264,7 @@ my $jwt = encode_jwt(payload => {
 --- no_error_log
 [error]
 
-
-
-=== TEST 2: JWT verification fails when no alg is present in the jwk to match against jwt.header.alg
+=== TEST 6: JWT verification does not fail when no alg is present in the jwk to match against jwt.header.alg
 --- configuration env eval
 use JSON qw(to_json);
 
@@ -303,7 +301,7 @@ to_json({
     }
   }
 --- request: GET /test
---- error_code: 403
+--- error_code: 200
 --- more_headers eval
 use Crypt::JWT qw(encode_jwt);
 my $jwt = encode_jwt(payload => {
@@ -313,5 +311,54 @@ my $jwt = encode_jwt(payload => {
   iss => 'https://example.com/auth/realms/apicast',
   exp => time + 3600 }, key => \$::private_key, alg => 'RS256', extra_headers => { kid => 'somekid' });
 "Authorization: Bearer $jwt"
+--- no_error_log
+
+=== TEST 7: JWT verification fails when jwk.alg exists AND does not match jwt.header.alg 
+(see THREESCALE-8249 for steps to generate tampered JWT. rsa.pub from fixtures used to sign)
+--- configuration env eval
+use JSON qw(to_json);
+
+to_json({
+  services => [{
+    id => 42,
+    backend_version => 'oauth',
+    backend_authentication_type => 'provider_key',
+    backend_authentication_value => 'fookey',
+    proxy => {
+        authentication_method => 'oidc',
+        oidc_issuer_endpoint => 'https://example.com/auth/realms/apicast',
+        api_backend => "http://test:$TEST_NGINX_SERVER_PORT/",
+        proxy_rules => [
+          { pattern => '/', http_method => 'GET', metric_system_name => 'hits', delta => 1  }
+        ]
+    }
+  }],
+  oidc => [{
+    issuer => 'https://example.com/auth/realms/apicast',
+    config => { id_token_signing_alg_values_supported => [ 'RS256', 'HS256' ] },
+    keys => { somekid => { pem => $::public_key, alg => 'RS256' } },
+  }]
+});
+--- upstream
+  location /test {
+    echo "yes";
+  }
+--- backend
+  location = /transactions/oauth_authrep.xml {
+    content_by_lua_block {
+      local expected = "provider_key=fookey&service_id=42&usage%5Bhits%5D=1&app_id=appid"
+      require('luassert').same(ngx.decode_args(expected), ngx.req.get_uri_args(0))
+    }
+  }
+--- request: GET /test
+--- error_code: 403
+--- more_headers eval
+use Crypt::JWT qw(encode_jwt);
+my $jwt = 'eyJraWQiOiJzb21la2lkIiwiYWxnIjoiSFMyNTYifQ.'.
+'eyJleHAiOjcxNzA1MzE2NDMwLCJhenAiOiJhcHBpZCIsInN1YiI6In'.
+'NvbWVvbmUiLCJhdWQiOiJzb21ldGhpbmciLCJpc3MiOiJodHRwczov'.
+'L2V4YW1wbGUuY29tL2F1dGgvcmVhbG1zL2FwaWNhc3QifQ.1rFq5QN'.
+'b99W6aqQjsx7GJGLDpdkDLI6-huZLzMAmxGQ';
+"Authorization: Bearer $jwt"
 --- error_log
 [jwt] alg mismatch