CVE-2024-28197 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in github.com/zitadel/zitadel. A fix is available for github.com/zitadel/zitadel — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Account Takeover via Session Fixation in Zitadel [Bypassing MFA]
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-28197.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-28197 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/zitadel/zitadel🐹github.com/zitadel/zitadelReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
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.
Patches
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.
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.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/zitadel/zitadel | all versions | 2.44.3go get github.com/zitadel/zitadel@v2.44.3 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/zitadel/zitadel | ≥ 2.45.0&&< 2.45.1 | 2.45.1go get github.com/zitadel/zitadel@v2.45.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/zitadel/zitadel, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/zitadel/zitadel to 2.44.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-28197 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2024-28197 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-28197. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-28197 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-28197 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.