CVE-2026-15571
Description
A flaw was found in the legacy client-initiated account-linking endpoint of Keycloak, a widely used open-source identity and access management solution. The mechanism used to protect the account-linking process from unauthorized requests relies on a hash that can be predicted by a malicious OIDC client. By tricking a user into authenticating, an attacker-controlled client can forge a valid linking URL to connect the victim's account to an attacker's external identity. This results in a full account takeover, allowing the attacker to log in as the victim.
Statement
The Red Hat Product Security team has assessed the severity of this vulnerability as Important, given that it enables full account takeover through a predictable security hash. Successful exploitation allows an attacker to link an unauthorized identity to a victim's account and subsequently impersonate that user across the realm. The vulnerability's root cause is the use of predictable session identifiers and client-known metadata in the construction of the account-linking CSRF protection hash.
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).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 7.3 | N/A | 7.3 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | Low | N/A | Low |
| User Interaction | Required | N/A | Required |
| 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:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Other
Technical Impact: Varies by Context
This weakness could be exploited by an attacker in a number ways depending on the context. If a predictable number is used to generate IDs or keys that are used within protection mechanisms, then an attacker could gain unauthorized access to the system. If predictable filenames are used for storing sensitive information, then an attacker might gain access to the system and may be able to gain access to the information in the file.
Acknowledgements
Red Hat would like to thank yd1ng for reporting this issue.
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