dbcve.org
Missing AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-862

CVE-2026-56668

HIGH · 8.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-07-10
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
87/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable Zero-click Patch available 6 weeks old

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
ZITADEL is an open source identity management platform. Prior to 4.15.3, ZITADEL's OAuth2 Token Exchange endpoint for urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange does not verify that the subject token belongs to the requesting client or that requested scopes remain within the original token's scopes, allowing a low-privilege token to be exchanged for elevated permissions at another application. This issue is fixed in version 4.15.3.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

The OAuth2 Token Exchange endpoint in ZITADEL prior to 4.15.3 fails to verify that the subject token belongs to the requesting client and does not enforce scope containment, allowing a low-privilege token to be exchanged for elevated permissions at a different application.

MitigationUpgrade to ZITADEL version 4.15.3 or later to patch the authorization bypass in the token exchange endpoint.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify ZITADEL installation
    Check if ZITADEL is running by querying running processes or container images: 'ps aux | grep zitadel' or 'docker ps | grep zitadel'. Also check for zitadel binary or helm charts.
    Affected if ZITADEL is not present in the environment
  2. Determine ZITADEL version
    Check the installed version: look at the ZITADEL binary version with 'zitadel version' or check the container image tag. If deployed via Helm, run 'helm list' and check the chart version.
    Affected if Version is prior to 4.15.3 (e.g., 4.14.x, 4.13.x, earlier)
  3. Verify OAuth2 Token Exchange is enabled
    Check ZITADEL configuration for token exchange settings. Review the ZITADEL YAML/TOML config file or Kubernetes secret for 'TokenExchange' or 'TokenExchangeEndpoint' settings. Inspect the OAuth2/OIDC client configuration in ZITADEL admin UI or API.
    Affected if Token Exchange endpoint is enabled and configured for any client
  4. Identify applications using token exchange
    Review ZITADEL audit logs or admin console for applications that have token exchange permissions granted. Look for 'token_exchange' scope in client configurations or service accounts.
    Affected if Any application or service account is configured with token exchange permissions
  5. Check for scope configurations
    Inspect OAuth2 client configurations for scope settings. Look at the allowed scopes and whether scope containment enforcement is defined in the ZITADEL system configuration.
    Affected if Scope containment is not explicitly enforced or is disabled

Environment is affected if ZITADEL version is prior to 4.15.3 AND the OAuth2 Token Exchange endpoint is enabled with applications configured to use it.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch github.com →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to ZITADEL version 4.15.3 or later to patch the authorization bypass in the token exchange endpoint.

Recommended fix High confidence

4.15.3

  1. 1. Upgrade ZITADEL to version 4.15.3 or later
  2. 2. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the ZITADEL version in the admin console or via API
  3. 3. Test the OAuth2 Token Exchange endpoint (urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange) to confirm the authorization checks are now properly enforcing token ownership and scope boundaries

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
17.0 hours of engineering $2,920
Get the patch applied

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,672.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-56668 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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