ORY - CraftedSignal Threat Feed

ORY Oathkeeper Authentication Bypass Vulnerability (CVE-2026-33496)

hello@craftedsignal.io — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 12:00:00 +0000

ORY Oathkeeper, an Identity & Access Proxy, is susceptible to an authentication bypass vulnerability (CVE-2026-33496) affecting versions prior to 26.2.0. This vulnerability stems from a cache key confusion issue within the oauth2_introspection authenticator. The cache fails to differentiate between tokens validated using different introspection URLs. This allows an attacker, who has legitimately obtained a valid token for one of the configured introspection servers, to prime the cache and subsequently reuse the same token for access rules intended for a different introspection server. The attack requires the Oathkeeper instance to be configured with multiple oauth2_introspection authenticators, all utilizing caching. This poses a significant risk as it enables unauthorized access to protected resources. Version 26.2.0 addresses this issue by incorporating the introspection server URL into the cache key.

Attack Chain

The attacker identifies an ORY Oathkeeper instance running a version prior to 26.2.0 configured with multiple oauth2_introspection authenticators using caching.
The attacker obtains a valid OAuth2 token for one of the configured introspection endpoints, potentially through legitimate means or by compromising a service that issues tokens for that endpoint.
The attacker crafts a request to a protected resource that is governed by an access rule configured to use the compromised token's introspection endpoint. This primes the Oathkeeper's cache with the token's validation result.
The attacker then crafts a second request to a different protected resource that is governed by an access rule configured to use a different introspection endpoint. Critically, this request uses the same token.
Due to the cache key collision, Oathkeeper incorrectly uses the cached validation result from the first introspection endpoint for the second request.
If the token is considered valid based on the cached result (even though it should be invalid for the second introspection endpoint), Oathkeeper grants unauthorized access to the protected resource.
The attacker successfully bypasses authentication and gains access to a resource they should not be authorized to access.

Impact

Successful exploitation of CVE-2026-33496 allows an attacker to bypass authentication and gain unauthorized access to protected resources managed by ORY Oathkeeper. The number of affected organizations depends on the adoption rate of ORY Oathkeeper and the number of instances running vulnerable versions with the specific misconfiguration (multiple oauth2_introspection authenticators with caching enabled). If exploited, this vulnerability can lead to data breaches, unauthorized modification of resources, and other security incidents.

Recommendation

Upgrade ORY Oathkeeper to version 26.2.0 or later to incorporate the fix for CVE-2026-33496.
As a temporary workaround, disable caching for oauth2_introspection authenticators to mitigate the vulnerability until an upgrade can be performed, as suggested in the advisory.

Ory Keto SQL Injection Vulnerability via GetRelationships API (CVE-2026-33505)

hello@craftedsignal.io — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Ory Keto, an open-source authorization server designed for managing permissions at scale, is susceptible to a SQL injection vulnerability (CVE-2026-33505) affecting versions prior to 26.2.0. This vulnerability resides within the GetRelationships API due to insecure pagination token handling. The application uses a secret configured in secrets.pagination to encrypt pagination tokens. However, if this configuration is absent, it defaults to a publicly known hard-coded secret. An attacker who knows the secret can craft malicious pagination tokens, enabling SQL injection. This impacts organizations where the GetRelationships API is accessible, the attacker can inject a raw pagination token, and the secrets.pagination value is either not set or known. This allows an attacker to execute arbitrary SQL queries against the Ory Keto database, potentially compromising sensitive data and control over the authorization server.

Attack Chain

The attacker identifies an Ory Keto instance running a version prior to 26.2.0.
The attacker determines that the secrets.pagination configuration value is not set on the target Ory Keto instance, enabling the default hardcoded secret.
The attacker crafts a malicious SQL payload designed to be injected into the GetRelationships API.
The attacker generates a valid-looking pagination token using the known default secrets.pagination secret, embedding the malicious SQL payload within the token.
The attacker sends a request to the GetRelationships API with the forged pagination token.
The Ory Keto application processes the request and decrypts the pagination token, unknowingly passing the malicious SQL payload to the database query.
The database executes the attacker's SQL query.
The attacker gains unauthorized access to sensitive information or executes arbitrary database commands.

Impact

Successful exploitation of this SQL injection vulnerability (CVE-2026-33505) in Ory Keto can have severe consequences. An attacker could potentially gain unauthorized access to sensitive permission data, modify access control policies, or even compromise the entire authorization server. This can lead to privilege escalation, data breaches, and complete control over the systems relying on Ory Keto for authorization. The CVSS v3.1 base score for this vulnerability is rated as 7.2 (High), highlighting the significant risk it poses to organizations using affected versions of Ory Keto.

Recommendation

Immediately configure a custom value for secrets.pagination by generating a cryptographically secure random secret to mitigate CVE-2026-33505.
Upgrade Keto to version 26.2.0 or later to patch CVE-2026-33505, addressing the underlying SQL injection vulnerability.
Monitor web server logs for suspicious requests to the GetRelationships API containing unusual pagination tokens to detect potential exploitation attempts.
Implement rate limiting on the GetRelationships API to reduce the impact of potential SQL injection attacks.

ORY Oathkeeper Authorization Bypass via Path Traversal (CVE-2026-33494)

hello@craftedsignal.io — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 12:00:00 +0000

ORY Oathkeeper, an Identity & Access Proxy (IAP) and Access Control Decision API, is susceptible to an authorization bypass vulnerability affecting versions prior to 26.2.0. This vulnerability, identified as CVE-2026-33494, stems from improper handling of HTTP path traversal sequences. Attackers can exploit this flaw by crafting malicious URLs containing sequences like /public/../admin/secrets. The application normalizes the path, resolving it to a protected resource. However, the authorization check uses the original, un-normalized path, potentially matching it against a permissive rule and granting unauthorized access. Organizations using affected versions of ORY Oathkeeper are at risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data and functionalities. Version 26.2.0 addresses this vulnerability with a patch.

Attack Chain

The attacker identifies an ORY Oathkeeper instance running a version prior to 26.2.0.
The attacker crafts a malicious HTTP request URL containing path traversal sequences, such as /public/../admin/secrets, targeting a protected resource.
The request is sent to the ORY Oathkeeper instance.
ORY Oathkeeper receives the request and normalizes the path, correctly resolving it to /admin/secrets.
However, the authorization check uses the raw, un-normalized path (/public/../admin/secrets) to evaluate access rules.
A permissive rule matching the un-normalized path is found, potentially granting access.
ORY Oathkeeper incorrectly authorizes the request based on the flawed path evaluation.
The attacker gains unauthorized access to the protected resource /admin/secrets, potentially exfiltrating sensitive information or performing unauthorized actions.

Impact

Successful exploitation of CVE-2026-33494 allows attackers to bypass intended access controls within ORY Oathkeeper deployments. This can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, configuration settings, and administrative functionalities. Given the role of ORY Oathkeeper in securing HTTP requests, a successful attack can compromise the confidentiality and integrity of protected applications and resources. The CVSS v3.1 base score of 10.0 reflects the criticality of this vulnerability.

Recommendation

Immediately upgrade ORY Oathkeeper to version 26.2.0 or later to remediate CVE-2026-33494.
Deploy the Sigma rule "Detect ORY Oathkeeper Path Traversal Attempts" to identify exploitation attempts in web server logs.
Monitor web server logs for HTTP requests containing path traversal sequences (e.g., .., %2e%2e) in the URI, as detected by the Sigma rule "Detect Generic HTTP Path Traversal".
Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to block requests with malicious path traversal patterns.