CVE-2026-12388
Description
A flaw was found in the Identity Provider (IdP) mapper component of Keycloak, which is used to manage how user information from external services is mapped to Keycloak users. An administrator with limited permissions to manage identity providers can exploit this flaw by creating a "Hardcoded Role" mapper that assigns high-level administrative roles (like realm-admin) to themselves or others. This allows a restricted administrator to bypass security checks and gain full control over the entire realm.
Statement
The Red Hat Product Security team has assessed the severity of this vulnerability as Moderate, given that it requires the attacker to already possess high-level administrative privileges (manage-identity-providers). Successful exploitation allows an attacker to escalate their privileges to realm-admin, granting them full control over the Keycloak realm. The vulnerability's root cause is a failure to enforce proper authorization checks (specifically requireMapRole) within the Identity Provider mapper endpoint.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 6.5 | N/A | 6.5 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | High | N/A | High |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High | N/A | High |
| Integrity Impact | High | N/A | High |
| Availability Impact | None | N/A | None |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Access Control
Technical Impact: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
A user can access restricted functionality and/or sensitive information that may include administrative functionality and user accounts.
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