GHSA-fqc7-5xxc-ph7r — keycloak-core
MEDIUMGHSA-fqc7-5xxc-ph7r is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.4) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in org.keycloak:keycloak-core. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Keycloak XSS via use of malicious payload as group name when creating new group from admin console
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-fqc7-5xxc-ph7r 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-coreReal-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. This flaw allows a privileged attacker to use the malicious payload as the group name while creating a new group from the admin console, leading to a stored Cross-site scripting (XSS) attack.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.keycloak:keycloak-core | all versions | No fix |
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-core, 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-core has shipped for GHSA-fqc7-5xxc-ph7r 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 GHSA-fqc7-5xxc-ph7r can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-fqc7-5xxc-ph7r. 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 | rh-sso7-keycloak | RHSA-2022:6787 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.5 for RHEL 7 | rh-sso7-keycloak-0:15.0.8-1.redhat_00001.1.el7sso | RHSA-2022:6782 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.5 for RHEL 8 | rh-sso7-keycloak-0:15.0.8-1.redhat_00001.1.el8sso | RHSA-2022:6783 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.6.1 | rh-sso7-keycloak | RHSA-2022:7417 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.6 for RHEL 7 | rh-sso7-keycloak-0:18.0.3-1.redhat_00001.1.el7sso | RHSA-2022:7409 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.6 for RHEL 8 | rh-sso7-keycloak-0:18.0.3-1.redhat_00001.1.el8sso | RHSA-2022:7410 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.6 for RHEL 9 | rh-sso7-0:1-5.el9sso | RHSA-2022:7411 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-fqc7-5xxc-ph7r in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-fqc7-5xxc-ph7r across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.