Summary
A security researcher reported a vulnerability in our session-logout management that affected Granola Workspace users. The researcher originally observed the issue when users manually disconnected their Google Workspace connection. Our investigation showed it also applied to users whose Google Workspace accounts had been suspended or deleted. If exploited, this vulnerability could have allowed such users to continue accessing their historical meeting notes and transcripts through existing Granola sessions until they manually logged out. The researcher disclosed the issue on May 12 2025. We acknowledged the report on May 13 2025, released fixes for the Desktop and iOS apps on May 28 2025, and deployed a follow-up fix for web sessions on June 2 2025. We are publishing this post-mortem to explain the incident and our response.Explanation of Why and How This Happened
Timeline
- Nov 12 2025: Granola Workspaces were first introduced.
- May 12 2025: Security researcher reports vulnerability affecting users who removed their Granola connection with Google.
- May 13 2025: Granola acknowledges the report and begins internal investigation.
- May 13 – June 2 2025: Technical investigation and deployment of fixes across all platforms.
- June 3 2025: Internal investigation completed and this post-mortem published.
Root Cause
Granola user sessions were not tied to the ongoing validity of the associated Google Workspace account. After authenticating with Google and receiving a token, a session remained valid, regardless of any subsequent suspension or deletion of the Google account, until the user logged out.How We Addressed the Issue
- May 13 2025: Acknowledged the report, began investigation, and reproduced the vulnerability.
- May 13 – June 2 2025:
- Verified that users with suspended or deleted Google Workspace accounts retained Granola access.
- Identified 187 affected users who were part of at least one Granola Workspace.
- Implemented automatic logout when a Google Workspace connection is deactivated.
- May 28 2025: Deployed fixes to the Desktop and iOS applications.
- June 2 2025: Deployed follow-up fix to the web application.