CVE-2026-33504

Description

Following Admin APIs in Ory Hydra are vulnerable to SQL injection due to flaws in its pagination implementation:

• listOAuth2Clients
• listOAuth2ConsentSessions
• listTrustedOAuth2JwtGrantIssuers

Pagination tokens are encrypted using the secret configured in secrets.pagination. If this value is not set, Hydra falls back to using secrets.system. An attacker who knows this secret can craft their own tokens, including malicious tokens that lead to SQL injection.

Preconditions

This issue can be exploited when the following conditions are met:

• One or more admin APIs listed above are directly or indirectly accessible to the attacker
• The attacker can pass a raw pagination token to the affected API
• The configuration value secrets.pagination is set and known to the attacker, or secrets.pagination is not set and secrets.system is known to the attacker

Mitigation

As a first line of defense, immediately configure a custom value for secrets.pagination by generating a cryptographically secure random secret, for example:

openssl rand -base64 32

Next, upgrade Hydra to the fixed version as soon as possible.

An attacker can execute arbitrary SQL queries through forged pagination tokens.

Untrusted input alters a database query, allowing the attacker to read or modify data the query was not intended to access. Typical impact: data disclosure or modification.

CVE-2026-33504 has a CVSS score of 7.2 (High). The vector is network-reachable, high privileges required, and no user interaction. 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 (2.3.1-0.20260320110106-0b84568fffcc); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

1. What is CVE-2026-33504? CVE-2026-33504 is a high-severity SQL injection vulnerability in github.com/ory/hydra (go), affecting versions <= 1.11.10. It is fixed in 2.3.1-0.20260320110106-0b84568fffcc. Untrusted input alters a database query, allowing the attacker to read or modify data the query was not intended to access.
2. How severe is CVE-2026-33504? CVE-2026-33504 has a CVSS score of 7.2 (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 packages are affected by CVE-2026-33504?
   • github.com/ory/hydra (go) (versions <= 1.11.10)
   • github.com/ory/hydra/v2 (go) (versions < 2.3.1-0.20260320110106-0b84568fffcc)
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2026-33504? Yes. CVE-2026-33504 is fixed in 2.3.1-0.20260320110106-0b84568fffcc. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2026-33504 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2026-33504 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-2026-33504 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-2026-33504? Upgrade github.com/ory/hydra/v2 to 2.3.1-0.20260320110106-0b84568fffcc or later.