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Keycloak vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Feb 27, 2023 in keycloak/keycloak • Updated Nov 7, 2023

Package

maven org.keycloak:keycloak-services (Maven)

Affected versions

<= 21.0.0

Patched versions

None

Description

A flaw was found in Keycloak. Under specific circumstances, HTML entities are not sanitized during user impersonation, resulting in a Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability.

Details

This issue is the result of code found in the exception here: https://github.com/keycloak/keycloak/blob/48835576daa158443f69917ac309e1a7c951bc87/services/src/main/java/org/keycloak/authentication/AuthenticationProcessor.java#L1045

Steps to reproduce

When using the legacy admin console:

  1. Sign in as Admin user in first tab.
  2. In that tab create new user in keycloak admin section > intercept user creation request and modify it by including malicious js script there (in username field).
  3. Sign in as newly created user in second tab (same browser window but second tab).
  4. Navigate back to first tab where you are signed in as admin, navigate to admin console which lists all application users.
  5. Choose any user (except newly created malicious one) – modify anything for that user in his settings. E.g. navigate to credentials tab and set new credentials for him. Also set new password as temporary.
  6. After update for that user is made, use impersonate option on that modified user.
  7. You should see window with form which requires providing new credentials – fill it and submit request.
  8. Just after submiting request user will get notified that “You are already authenticated as different user ‘[user + payload]’ in this session. Please sign out first.” And malicious payload will be executed instantly.

References

@abstractj abstractj published to keycloak/keycloak Feb 27, 2023
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Mar 1, 2023
Reviewed Mar 1, 2023
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Sep 20, 2023
Last updated Nov 7, 2023

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
High
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

0.144%
(51st percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2022-1438

GHSA ID

GHSA-w354-2f3c-qvg9

Source code

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