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413,830

Total vulnerabilities in the database

ZITADEL: Missing Token Lifecyle Validation (`exp` and `iat`) in JWT IdP Provider — github.com/zitadel/zitadel

Insufficient Session Expiration

Summary

Two closely related token lifecycle validation vulnerabilities were discovered in ZITADEL's external JWT Identity Provider (IdP) implementation.

Specifically, within the validation pipeline:

Missing Expiration (exp) Enforcement: If an incoming JWT omits the exp claim entirely, the expiration block is silently skipped rather than rejected. The token is treated as valid forever.
Missing Issued-At (iat) Enforcement: ZITADEL enforces a 1-hour freshness window (maxAge) via the token's issue time. However, this safety check is guarded by a presence condition. If a token omits the iat claim, the freshness check is entirely bypassed, allowing arbitrarily old tokens to pass.

Per the OIDC Core 1.0 specification, identity token validation pipelines must strictly handle and enforce session expiration. ZITADEL's silent acceptance of tokens missing these temporal constraints compromises session integrity.

Impact

An attacker in possession of a token that lacks both exp and iat claims holds a permanent credential that will never expire and will always be deemed "fresh" by the system. Even without combining both flaws, the absence of an expiration constraint means a leaked token effectively turns into a skeleton key for that user session with no automatic revocation window.

Affected Versions

Systems running one of the following versions are affected:

4.x: 4.0.0 through 4.15.1 (including RC versions)
3.x: 3.0.0 through 3.4.11 (including RC versions)

Patches

The vulnerability has been addressed in the latest releases. ZITADEL now explicitly rejects tokens that lack an exp or iat claim.

4.x: Upgrade to $\ge$ 4.15.2
3.x: Upgrade to $\ge$ 3.4.12

Workarounds

The recommended solution is to update ZITADEL to a patched version.

If an immediate upgrade is not feasible, ensure at the Identity Provider level that the external IdP is rigidly configured to enforce short token lifetimes and explicitly includes both exp and iat claims in every single token payload it signs and issues.

Questions

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

Credits

Thanks to Android-Login-Analysis, Jason Zhou and Pedro Giglioti for reporting this vulnerability.

Published: Jun 18, 2026
Updated: Aug 29, 2026
GHSA: GHSA-wxg7-w2v3-w38g
Severity: Medium
Exploit:
CISA KEV:

CVSS v3:

Severity: Medium
Score: 4.2
AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

CWEs:

CWE-613

OWASP TOP 10:

A2 - Broken Authentication

Affected Software
References

Software	Affected versions
github.com/zitadel/zitadel	`< 1.80.0-v2.20.0.20260615122908-fad02c6d9f45`

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Vulnerability (CVE) and why does it matter?

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.