# CVE-2026-109374: ZITADEL 3.0.0 before 4.19.2 Privilege Escalation via OIDC Token Exchange Impersonation

> Attackers with impersonation roles can bypass checks to impersonate administrators, leading to privilege escalation and account takeover in ZITADEL.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.1 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 12 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 13 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-7j9c-5h49-hq7h, GHSA-w4gv-rcwj-w6r5

## What is CVE-2026-109374?

CVE-2026-109374 is a medium-severity vulnerability in zitadel, published on 12 Oct 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

ZITADEL 3.0.0 before 4.19.2 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in OIDC token exchange that allows end-user impersonators to impersonate administrators including IAM_OWNER by bypassing the admin.impersonation check. Attackers holding IAM_END_USER_IMPERSONATOR or ORG_END_USER_IMPERSONATOR roles can sign in to relying applications as administrators with their roles and claims.

Weakness: CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-109374?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-109374?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-109374 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-109374 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-109374 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-109374 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-109374 is a medium-severity vulnerability in zitadel, published on 12 Oct 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-109374 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: zitadel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-109374/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-109374/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-109374
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-109374
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-109374

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-109374/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.