CVE-2024-28197

Workarounds

For self-hosted environments unable to upgrade to a patched version, prevent setting the following cookie name on subdomains of your ZITADEL instance (e.g. within your WAF): __Secure-zitadel-useragent

References

None

Questions

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, please email us at [email protected]

Credits

Thanks to Amit Laish, GE Vernova for finding and reporting the vulnerability.

ZITADEL uses a cookie to identify the user agent (browser) and its user sessions.

Although the cookie was handled according to best practices, it was accessible on subdomains of the ZITADEL instance. An attacker could take advantage of this and provide a malicious link hosted on the subdomain to the user to gain access to the victim’s account in certain scenarios.
A possible victim would need to login through the malicious link for this exploit to work.

If the possible victim already had the cookie present, the attack would not succeed. The attack would further only be possible if there was an initial vulnerability on the subdomain. This could either be the attacker being able to control DNS or a XSS vulnerability in an application hosted on a subdomain.

The application assigns, modifies, tracks, or checks privileges incorrectly, allowing a user to gain elevated access. Typical impact: privilege escalation beyond the intended level.

CVE-2024-28197 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). The vector is reachable from an adjacent network, no privileges required, and user interaction required. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (2.44.3, 2.45.1); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

2.x versions are fixed on >= 2.46.0
2.45.x versions are fixed on >= 2.45.1
2.44.x versions are fixed on >= 2.44.3

ZITADEL recommends upgrading to the latest versions available in due course.

Note that applying the patch will invalidate the current cookie and thus users will need to start a new session and existing sessions (user selection) will be empty.

1. What is CVE-2024-28197? CVE-2024-28197 is a high-severity improper privilege management vulnerability in github.com/zitadel/zitadel (go), affecting versions < 2.44.3. It is fixed in 2.44.3, 2.45.1. The application assigns, modifies, tracks, or checks privileges incorrectly, allowing a user to gain elevated access.
2. How severe is CVE-2024-28197? CVE-2024-28197 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
3. Which versions of github.com/zitadel/zitadel are affected by CVE-2024-28197? github.com/zitadel/zitadel (go) versions < 2.44.3 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2024-28197? Yes. CVE-2024-28197 is fixed in 2.44.3, 2.45.1. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2024-28197 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2024-28197 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
6. What actually determines whether CVE-2024-28197 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
7. How do I fix CVE-2024-28197?
   • Upgrade github.com/zitadel/zitadel to 2.44.3 or later
   • Upgrade github.com/zitadel/zitadel to 2.45.1 or later