CVE-2026-9796 PUBLISHED

Keycloak: keycloak: privilege escalation via time-of-check to time-of-use (toctou) vulnerability

Assigner: redhat
Reserved: 28.05.2026 Published: 28.05.2026 Updated: 28.05.2026

A flaw was found in Keycloak. An authenticated administrator with the manage-clients role can exploit a Time-of-check to time-of-use (TOCTOU) vulnerability in the name-based admin role checks. This allows the attacker to escalate their privileges to realm-admin for all users within the realm, granting them extensive control over the system. The composite role relationship persists even after the attacker's own permissions are revoked and across system reboots.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
CVSS Score: 6.5

Product Status

Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Build of Keycloak
Versions Default: affected

Workarounds

Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.

Credits

  • Red Hat would like to thank Daniel Peters (Operating Intelligence Inc.), Lior Moshe (Operating Intelligence Inc.), and Uri Rolls (Operating Intelligence Inc.) for reporting this issue.

References

Problem Types

  • Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition CWE