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MEDIUM severity

CVE-2022-1438 — keycloak-services

MEDIUM

CVE-2022-1438 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.4) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in org.keycloak:keycloak-services. The records list no fixed version yet; check the vendor advisory below and apply the mitigations in the meantime.

Keycloak vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting

Published
Updated
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
See advisory
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Nov 10, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

  • CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-1438.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
0.7%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs52th percentile — riskier than 52% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%0.39%0.77%1.16%0.2%0.7%May 26Sep 26Nov 26

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

1 pkg affected
☕org.keycloak:keycloak-services

Real-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 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.

Affected Packages

1 total
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
☕Mavenorg.keycloak:keycloak-servicesall versionsNo fix

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations
Application
keycloakredhat
all

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    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.

  2. Remediation status

    The records we use list no patched version of org.keycloak:keycloak-services for CVE-2022-1438. Check the maintainer's advisory, and where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range.

  3. Mitigate without a patch

    Escape or sanitise the affected output on the server side rather than relying on client-side filtering, and add a Content-Security-Policy that blocks inline script execution so injected markup cannot run even if it reaches the page.

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 HatModerate
ProductFixed inAdvisory
Red Hat Single Sign-On 7keycloak-servicesRHSA-2023:1049
Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.6 for RHEL 7rh-sso7-keycloak-0:18.0.6-1.redhat_00001.1.el7ssoRHSA-2023:1043
Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.6 for RHEL 8rh-sso7-keycloak-0:18.0.6-1.redhat_00001.1.el8ssoRHSA-2023:1044
Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.6 for RHEL 9rh-sso7-keycloak-0:18.0.6-1.redhat_00001.1.el9ssoRHSA-2023:1045
RHEL-8 based Middleware Containersrh-sso-7/sso76-openshift-rhel8:7.6-20RHSA-2023:1047

Frequently Asked Questions

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](https://github.com/keycloak/keycloak/blob/48835576daa158443f69917ac309e1a7c951bc87/services/src/main/java/org/keycloak/authentication/AuthenticationProcessor.java#L1045) ## Step
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2022-1438: keycloak-services XSS (Medium 6.4)