Ory Keto has a SQL injection via forged pagination tokens

Description

Description

The GetRelationships API in Ory Keto 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, Keto falls back to a hard-coded 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 all of the following conditions are met:

  • GetRelationships 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 Keto to a fixed version as soon as possible.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
high
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2026-03-20 20:55:44 UTC
Updated
2026-03-27 21:17:32 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2026-03-20 20:55:44 UTC
NVD published
2026-03-26 19:17:04 UTC

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.02% 5.13%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
7.2 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-89 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')

Affected packages (1)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
go github.com/ory/keto < 0.14.1-0.20260320140104-e4393662cd2e 0.14.1-0.20260320140104-e4393662cd2e

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence