CVE-2022-1438 — keycloak-services
MEDIUMCVE-2022-1438 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.4) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in org.keycloak:keycloak-services. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Keycloak vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting
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
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2022-1438 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,567 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
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 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:
- Sign in as Admin user in first tab.
- 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).
- Sign in as newly created user in second tab (same browser window but second tab).
- Navigate back to first tab where you are signed in as admin, navigate to admin console which lists all application users.
- 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.
- After update for that user is made, use impersonate option on that modified user.
- You should see window with form which requires providing new credentials – fill it and submit request.
- 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
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.keycloak:keycloak-services | all versions | No fix |
Detection & 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.
Remediation status
No patched version of org.keycloak:keycloak-services has shipped for CVE-2022-1438 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2022-1438 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-1438. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7 | keycloak-services | RHSA-2023:1049 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.6 for RHEL 7 | rh-sso7-keycloak-0:18.0.6-1.redhat_00001.1.el7sso | RHSA-2023:1043 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.6 for RHEL 8 | rh-sso7-keycloak-0:18.0.6-1.redhat_00001.1.el8sso | RHSA-2023:1044 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.6 for RHEL 9 | rh-sso7-keycloak-0:18.0.6-1.redhat_00001.1.el9sso | RHSA-2023:1045 |
| RHEL-8 based Middleware Containers | rh-sso-7/sso76-openshift-rhel8:7.6-20 | RHSA-2023:1047 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-1438 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-1438 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.