CVE-2026-33505: Ory Keto has a SQL injection via forged pagination tokens

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-33505 is a high (CVSS 7.2) vulnerability in ory keto. EPSS estimates a 0.23% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 14.2% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 26-03-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 30-03-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Ory Keto is am open source authorization server for managing permissions at scale. Prior to version 26.2.0, 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. This issue can be exploited when GetRelationships API is directly or indirectly accessible to the attacker, the attacker can pass a raw pagination token to the affected API, and the configuration value `secrets.pagination` is not set or known to the attacker. An attacker can execute arbitrary SQL queries through forged pagination tokens. As a first line of defense, immediately configure a custom value for `secrets.pagination` by generating a cryptographically secure random secret. Next, upgrade Keto to a fixed version, 26.2.0 or later, as soon as possible.

• CWE-89Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL CommandThe 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.