How severe is CVE-2020-12691?

CVE-2020-12691 has a CVSS score of 8.8/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2020-12691?

CVE-2020-12691 affects the following packages: keystone (PyPI), keystone (PyPI). Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix CVE-2020-12691?

Update keystone to 15.0.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-12691 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2020-12691 in my PyPI dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for keystone, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2020-12691 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.

Is CVE-2020-12691 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2020-12691 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2020-12691?

CVE-2020-12691 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 4.9%, placing it in the 92th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2020-12691?

CVE-2020-12691 is classified as CWE-863 (CWE-863). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2020-12691 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2020-12691 was published on May 7, 2020 and was last updated on October 24, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐍

🐍 PyPI

Not in CISA KEV

HIGH severity

CVE-2020-12691 — keystone

HIGHFix: openstack/keystone@37e9907

CVE-2020-12691 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) CWE-863 vulnerability in keystone. A fix is available for keystone — see the affected versions and patch details below.

OpenStack Keystone V3 /credentials endpoint policy logic allows to change credentials owner or target project ID

Also known asGHSA-4427-7f3w-mqv6PYSEC-2020-55

Published

May 7, 2020

Updated

Oct 24, 2026

Affected

2 pkgs

Patched

2 / 2

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 10, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

4.9%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs92th percentile — riskier than 92% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Real-World Exposure

2 pkgs affected

🐍keystone🐍keystone

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

An issue was discovered in OpenStack Keystone before 15.0.1, and 16.0.0. Any authenticated user can create an EC2 credential for themselves for a project that they have a specified role on, and then perform an update to the credential user and project, allowing them to masquerade as another user. This potentially allows a malicious user to act as the admin on a project another user has the admin role on, which can effectively grant that user global admin privileges.

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`keystone`	all versions	15.0.1`pip install --upgrade 'keystone==15.0.1'`
🐍PyPI	`keystone`	≥ 16.0.0&&< 16.0.1	16.0.1`pip install --upgrade 'keystone==16.0.1'`

Affected Products

2 products · 3 configurations

ubuntu linuxcanonical

1 version

18.04

Application

keystoneopenstack

< 15.0.1

1 version

16.0.0

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for keystone, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update keystone to 15.0.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-12691 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.

Fixing This On Your OS

If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.

Red HatImportant

Red Hat Quay includes keystone-client, which is not vulnerable to this (server-side) vulnerability.

Product	Fixed in	Advisory
Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10.0 (Newton)	`openstack-keystone-1:10.0.3-8.el7ost`	RHSA-2020:3096
Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13.0 (Queens)	`openstack-keystone-1:13.0.4-3.el7ost`	RHSA-2020:2732
Red Hat OpenStack Platform 15.0 (Stein)	`openstack-keystone-1:15.0.1-0.20200512110437.95b2bbe.el8ost`	RHSA-2020:3102
Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.0 (Train)	`openstack-keystone-1:16.0.1-0.20200511063421.40cbb7b.el8ost`	RHSA-2020:3105

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2020-12691 in your dependencies?

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