GHSA-54f3-c6hg-865h is a high-severity (CVSS 7.7) CWE-770 vulnerability in org.keycloak:keycloak-model-jpa. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for org.keycloak:keycloak-model-jpa — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Allocation of Resources Without Limits in Keycloak
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
GHSA-54f3-c6hg-865h 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 377,166 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-model-jpaReal-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
An unconstrained memory consumption vulnerability was discovered in Keycloak. It can be triggered in environments which have millions of offline tokens (> 500,000 users with each having at least 2 saved sessions). If an attacker creates two or more user sessions and then open the "consents" tab of the admin User Interface, the UI attempts to load a huge number of offline client sessions leading to excessive memory and CPU consumption which could potentially crash the entire system.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.keycloak:keycloak-model-jpa | all versions | 21.0.0org.keycloak:keycloak-model-jpa:21.0.0 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
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-model-jpa, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.keycloak:keycloak-model-jpa to 21.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-54f3-c6hg-865h is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
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 GHSA-54f3-c6hg-865h can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-54f3-c6hg-865h. 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.
While this vulnerability can enable complete compromise of system availability, it is not possible to be triggered in every environment. The impact is rated as Important due to several preconditions (number of users and how many sessions each user has) which are beyond an attacker's control.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.6 for RHEL 7 | rh-sso7-keycloak-0:18.0.11-2.redhat_00003.1.el7sso | RHSA-2023:7854 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.6 for RHEL 8 | rh-sso7-keycloak-0:18.0.11-2.redhat_00003.1.el8sso | RHSA-2023:7856 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.6 for RHEL 9 | rh-sso7-keycloak-0:18.0.11-2.redhat_00003.1.el9sso | RHSA-2023:7855 |
| RHEL-8 based Middleware Containers | rh-sso-7/sso76-openshift-rhel8:7.6-38 | RHSA-2023:7857 |
| Single Sign-On 7.6.6 | rh-sso7-keycloak | RHSA-2023:7858 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-54f3-c6hg-865h in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-54f3-c6hg-865h across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.