How severe is CVE-2026-76081?

CVE-2026-76081 has a CVSS score of 5.5/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2026-76081?

CVE-2026-76081 affects the following packages: github.com/zitadel/zitadel (Go). Ecosystems affected: Go.

How do I fix CVE-2026-76081?

Update github.com/zitadel/zitadel to 4.16.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-76081 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2026-76081 in my Go dependencies?

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.

How do I mitigate CVE-2026-76081 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.

Is CVE-2026-76081 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2026-76081 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-2026-76081?

CVE-2026-76081 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.4%, placing it in the 34th 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-2026-76081?

CVE-2026-76081 is classified as CWE-193 (CWE-193). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2026-76081 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2026-76081 was published on September 14, 2026 and was last updated on October 28, 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

Not in CISA KEV

MEDIUM severity

CVE-2026-76081 — zitadel

MEDIUMFix: zitadel/zitadel@9d60e83

CVE-2026-76081 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.5) CWE-193 vulnerability in github.com/zitadel/zitadel. A fix is available for github.com/zitadel/zitadel — see the affected versions and patch details below.

ZITADEL: Improper Role Revocation on Granted Projects during Multiple Role Deletions

Also known asGHSA-v859-c572-qh5pGO-2026-6473

Published

Sep 14, 2026

Updated

Oct 28, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 3, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

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-2026-76081.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.4%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs34th percentile — riskier than 34% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

🐹github.com/zitadel/zitadel

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

Summary

A bug in how ZITADEL updates permissions when multiple project roles are deleted at the same time can cause some user permissions to be missed. This issue specifically affects User Grants on Granted Projects (projects shared between different organizations), potentially allowing users to keep access rights that were supposed to be completely removed.

Impact

When an organization shares a project with another organization (a Project Grant), administrators can assign specific roles to users via a User Grant. If multiple roles are deleted from that project at the same time, a background process runs to strip those roles from the assigned users.

Because of an error in how ZITADEL loops through a user's list of roles during this specific cross-organization cleanup, deleting two or more roles at once might cause the system to accidentally skip over some of them.

Scope Note: This vulnerability only affects User Grants on Granted Projects. Direct project roles and global organization roles are not impacted.

The risk depends entirely on what the skipped role allowed the user to do—if it was an administrative or high-privilege role, the user could potentially retain those elevated permissions within that granted project even after the role was officially deleted.

Affected Versions

4.x: 4.0.0 through 4.15.3 (including RC versions)
3.x: 3.0.0 through 3.4.12 (including RC versions)

Note: The 3.x release channel has reached End-of-Life (EOL) for security updates and will not receive a backported patch.

Patches & Resolution

This issue has been fully resolved in the latest releases.

The update fixes the role-removal logic to ensure no roles are skipped. Furthermore, this patch includes an automatic database migration. When you update, the system will automatically scan your database, find any user permissions on granted projects that may have been accidentally left behind by this bug, and correct them.

4.x: Upgrade to $\ge$4.16.0
3.x: Update to $\ge$4.16.0 (or check out workarounds)

Workarounds

There are no configuration workarounds. Upgrading to a patched version is the recommended solution and only way to trigger the automatic cleanup migration. If you cannot upgrade immediately, we recommend manually reviewing user permissions specifically for your Granted Projects where multiple roles were recently deleted.

Questions

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

Credits

Thanks to AyushParkara for reporting this vulnerability.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐹Go	`github.com/zitadel/zitadel`	all versions	4.16.0`go get github.com/zitadel/zitadel@v4.16.0`

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/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 4.16.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-76081 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Summary A bug in how ZITADEL updates permissions when multiple project roles are deleted at the same time can cause some user permissions to be missed. This issue specifically affects **User Grants on Granted Projects** (projects shared between different organizations), **potentially** allowing users to keep access rights that were supposed to be completely removed. ### Impact When an organization shares a project with another organization (a Project Grant), administrators can assign specific roles to users via a User Grant. If multiple roles are deleted from that project at the same ti