GHSA-2wmj-46rj-qm2w
HIGHGHSA-2wmj-46rj-qm2w is a high-severity (CVSS 8.1) CWE-640 vulnerability in github.com/zitadel/zitadel. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-2wmj-46rj-qm2w is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
ZITADEL Account Takeover via Malicious Host Header Injection
Blast Radius
github.com/zitadel/zitadel🐹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 the notification triggering requests Forwarded or X-Forwarded-Host header to build the button link sent in emails for confirming a password reset with the emailed code. If this header is overwritten and a user clicks the link to a malicious site in the email, the secret code can be retrieved and used to reset the users password and take over his account.
Accounts with MFA or Passwordless enabled can not be taken over by this attack.
Patches
The patched ZITADEL versions verify, that the auth requests instance is retrieved by the requests original domain (from the Forwarded or X-Forwarded-Host headers if available). If the instance can't be found using the original host or the auth request can't be found within that instance, ZITADEL throws an error.
2.x versions are fixed on >= 2.41.6 2.40.x versions are fixed on >= 2.40.10 2.39.x versions are fixed on >= 2.39.9
The vulnerablility was introduced with 2.39.0.
Workarounds
A ZITADEL fronting proxy can be configured to delete all Forwarded and X-Forwarded-Host header values before sending requests to ZITADEL self-hosted environments.
References
None
Questions
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, please email us at [email protected]
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/zitadel/zitadel | ≥ 2.39.0&&< 2.39.9 | 2.39.9 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/zitadel/zitadel | ≥ 2.40.0&&< 2.40.10 | 2.40.10 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/zitadel/zitadel | ≥ 2.41.0&&< 2.41.6 | 2.41.6 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
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. 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/zitadel/zitadel to 2.39.9 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-2wmj-46rj-qm2w 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 GHSA-2wmj-46rj-qm2w 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 GHSA-2wmj-46rj-qm2w. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-2wmj-46rj-qm2w in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-2wmj-46rj-qm2w across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.