CVE-2026-76081: ZITADEL: Improper Role Revocation on Granted Projects during Multiple Role Deletions
Summary
A bug in how ZITADEL updates permissions when multiple project roles are deleted at the same time can cause some user permissions to be missed. This issue specifically affects User Grants on Granted Projects (projects shared between different organizations), potentially allowing users to keep access rights that were supposed to be completely removed.
Impact
When an organization shares a project with another organization (a Project Grant), administrators can assign specific roles to users via a User Grant. If multiple roles are deleted from that project at the same time, a background process runs to strip those roles from the assigned users.
Because of an error in how ZITADEL loops through a user's list of roles during this specific cross-organization cleanup, deleting two or more roles at once might cause the system to accidentally skip over some of them.
Scope Note: This vulnerability only affects User Grants on Granted Projects. Direct project roles and global organization roles are not impacted.
The risk depends entirely on what the skipped role allowed the user to do—if it was an administrative or high-privilege role, the user could potentially retain those elevated permissions within that granted project even after the role was officially deleted.
Affected Versions
4.x: 4.0.0 through 4.15.3 (including RC versions) 3.x: 3.0.0 through 3.4.12 (including RC versions)
Note: The 3.x release channel has reached End-of-Life (EOL) for security updates and will not receive a backported patch.
Patches & Resolution
This issue has been fully resolved in the latest releases.
The update fixes the role-removal logic to ensure no roles are skipped. Furthermore, this patch includes an automatic database migration. When you update, the system will automatically scan your database, find any user permissions on granted projects that may have been accidentally left behind by this bug, and correct them.
- 4.x: Upgrade to $\ge$4.16.0 - 3.x: Update to $\ge$4.16.0 (or check out workarounds)
Workarounds
There are no configuration workarounds. Upgrading to a patched version is the recommended solution and only way to trigger the automatic cleanup migration. If you cannot upgrade immediately, we recommend manually reviewing user permissions specifically for your Granted Projects where multiple roles were recently deleted.
Questions
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, please reach out to us at security@zitadel.com.
Credits
Thanks to AyushParkara for reporting this vulnerability.
Other sources
ZITADEL is an open source identity management platform. Prior to version 4.16.0, a bug in how ZITADEL updates permissions when multiple project roles are deleted at the same time can cause some user permissions to be missed. This issue specifically affects User Grants on Granted Projects (projects shared between different organizations), potentially allowing users to keep access rights that were supposed to be completely removed. This issue has been fully resolved in version 4.16.0. There are no configuration workarounds. Upgrading to a patched version is the only way to trigger the automatic cleanup migration. Those who cannot upgrade immediately should manually review user permissions specifically for Granted Projects where multiple roles were recently deleted.
— MITRE
Affected Software
Remediation
Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.
- Upgrade
Upgrade
go/github.com/zitadel/zitadelto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 4.16.0 - Upgrade
Upgrade
zitadel/zitadelto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 4.16.0 - Operational
If you cannot upgrade immediately, manually review user permissions for your Granted Projects where multiple roles were recently deleted to ensure no elevated or other permissions were accidentally left behind (this vulnerability affects User Grants on Granted Projects shared between organizations).
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Which deployments are exposed to this issue?
Only deployments using User Grants on projects granted between organizations are affected. Direct project roles and global organization roles are not impacted.
What conditions are required for permissions to remain after removal?
An administrator must delete two or more roles at the same time from a granted project. During the resulting cross-organization cleanup, ZITADEL might skip removing some of those roles from affected user grants.
What should administrators do if they cannot immediately apply an update?
Avoid deleting multiple roles simultaneously from granted projects; remove roles individually instead. After any bulk role deletion, review the affected users' grants and confirm that every intended role was removed.
How can an organization determine whether it may already be affected?
Review User Grants associated with granted projects where multiple roles were deleted together. Check whether users still hold roles that administrators intended to remove, with priority given to administrative or otherwise high-privilege roles.