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Ory Kratos has a SQL injection via forged pagination tokens

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Mar 20, 2026 in ory/kratos • Updated Mar 20, 2026

Package

gomod github.com/ory/kratos (Go)

Affected versions

< 1.3.1-0.20260320110106-9d7085948039

Patched versions

1.3.1-0.20260320110106-9d7085948039

Description

Description

The ListCourierMessages Admin API in Ory Kratos is vulnerable to SQL injection due to flaws in its pagination implementation.

Pagination tokens are encrypted using the secret configured in secrets.pagination. An attacker who knows this secret can craft their own tokens, including malicious tokens that lead to SQL injection. If this configuration value is not set, Kratos falls back to a default pagination encryption secret. Because this default value is publicly known, attackers can generate valid and malicious pagination tokens manually for installations where this secret is not set.

Preconditions

This issue can be exploited when the following conditions are met:

  • ListCourierMessages API is directly or indirectly accessible to the attacker
  • The attacker can pass a raw pagination token to the affected API
  • The configuration value secrets.pagination is not set or known to the attacker

Impact

An attacker can execute arbitrary SQL queries through forged pagination tokens.

Mitigation

As a first line of defense, immediately configure a custom value for secrets.pagination by generating a cryptographically secure random secret, for example:

openssl rand -base64 32

Next, upgrade Kratos to a fixed version as soon as possible.

References

@zepatrik zepatrik published to ory/kratos Mar 20, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Mar 20, 2026
Reviewed Mar 20, 2026
Last updated Mar 20, 2026

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

Weaknesses

Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')

The product constructs all or part of an SQL command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended SQL command when it is sent to a downstream component. Without sufficient removal or quoting of SQL syntax in user-controllable inputs, the generated SQL query can cause those inputs to be interpreted as SQL instead of ordinary user data. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-33503

GHSA ID

GHSA-hgx2-28f8-6g2r

Source code

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