How severe is CVE-2024-45042?

CVE-2024-45042 has a CVSS score of 4.4/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2024-45042?

CVE-2024-45042 affects the following packages: github.com/ory/kratos (Go). Ecosystems affected: Go.

How do I fix CVE-2024-45042?

Update github.com/ory/kratos to 1.3.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-45042 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2024-45042 in my Go dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/ory/kratos. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.

How do I mitigate CVE-2024-45042 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against CVE-2024-45042?

O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2024-45042 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is CVE-2024-45042 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2024-45042 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2024-45042?

CVE-2024-45042 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.3%, placing it in the 24th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2024-45042?

CVE-2024-45042 is classified as Improper Authentication (CWE-287). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2024-45042 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2024-45042 was published on September 26, 2024 and was last updated on April 10, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐹 Go

CVE-2024-45042

MEDIUM

Ory Kratos's `highest_available` setting does not properly respect code + mfa credentials

Also known asGHSA-wc43-73w7-x2f5GO-2024-3160

Published

Sep 26, 2024

Updated

Apr 10, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk24th percentile+0.22%

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.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

🐹github.com/ory/kratos

Real-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

Ory Kratos is an identity, user management and authentication system for cloud services. Prior to version 1.3.0, given a number of preconditions, the highest_available setting will incorrectly assume that the identity’s highest available AAL is aal1 even though it really is aal2. This means that the highest_available configuration will act as if the user has only one factor set up, for that particular user. This means that they can call the settings and whoami endpoint without a aal2 session, even though that should be disallowed. An attacker would need to steal or guess a valid login OTP of a user who has only OTP for login enabled and who has an incorrect available_aal value stored, to exploit this vulnerability. All other aspects of the session (e.g. the session’s aal) are not impacted by this issue. On the Ory Network, only 0.00066% of registered users were affected by this issue, and most of those users appeared to be test users. Their respective AAL values have since been updated and they are no longer vulnerable to this attack. Version 1.3.0 is not affected by this issue. As a workaround, those who require MFA should disable the passwordless code login method. If that is not possible, check the sessions aal to identify if the user has aal1 or aal2.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐹Go	`github.com/ory/kratos`	all versions	1.3.0

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/ory/kratos. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update github.com/ory/kratos to 1.3.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-45042 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 pinpoints whether CVE-2024-45042 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Tailored to CVE-2024-45042. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ory Kratos is an identity, user management and authentication system for cloud services. Prior to version 1.3.0, given a number of preconditions, the `highest_available` setting will incorrectly assume that the identity’s highest available AAL is `aal1` even though it really is `aal2`. This means that the `highest_available` configuration will act as if the user has only one factor set up, for that particular user. This means that they can call the settings and whoami endpoint without a `aal2` session, even though that should be disallowed. An attacker would need to steal or guess a valid logi

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2024-45042 in your dependencies?

O3 detects CVE-2024-45042 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

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