CVE-2022-1245 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-862 vulnerability in org.keycloak:keycloak-services. A fix is available for org.keycloak:keycloak-services — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Keycloak vulnerable to privilege escalation on Token Exchange feature
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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
org.keycloak:keycloak-servicesReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A privilege escalation flaw was found in the token exchange feature of keycloak. Missing authorization allows a client application holding a valid access token to exchange tokens for any target client by passing the client_id of the target. This could allow a client to gain unauthorized access to additional services.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.keycloak:keycloak-services | all versions | 18.0.0org.keycloak:keycloak-services:18.0.0 |
Affected Products
keycloakredhatDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.keycloak:keycloak-services, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.keycloak:keycloak-services to 18.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-1245 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Close the privilege gap rather than the entry point: audit which accounts, roles and service identities can reach the affected operation, drop the component to the least privilege it actually needs, and review file and directory permissions created by earlier installs — a default left in place is what makes this reachable.
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.
The token exchange feature is currently in technology preview and is not fully supported. Please see the documentation for more information on this feature: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_single_sign-on/7.5/html/securing_applications_and_services_guide/token-exchange
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7 | rh-sso7-keycloak | RHSA-2022:1709 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.5 for RHEL 7 | rh-sso7-keycloak-0:15.0.6-1.redhat_00002.1.el7sso | RHSA-2022:1711 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.5 for RHEL 8 | rh-sso7-keycloak-0:15.0.6-1.redhat_00002.1.el8sso | RHSA-2022:1712 |
| RHEL-8 based Middleware Containers | rh-sso-7/sso75-openshift-rhel8:7.5-26 | RHSA-2022:1713 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-1245 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.