Keycloak vulnerable to Plaintext Storage of User Password

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

8.8 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

• CVE-2023-4918: 0.57% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 47.41 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

A flaw was discovered in Keycloak Core package. When a user registers itself through registration flow, the "password" and "password-confirm" field from the form will occur as regular attributes in the users attributes. The password is also created, but the user attributes must not be there. This way, any entities (all users and clients with proper rights/roles) are able to retrieve the users passwords in clear-text. Impact Passwords for self-registered users are stored as cleartext attributes associated with the user. Mitigation Disable self-registration for users in all realms until patched.

Published by the source

12 Sep 2023, 21:10 UTC

Last modified by the source

11 Nov 2023, 05:02 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 16:17 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-5q66-v53q-pm35

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2023-4918

Advisory: Keycloak vulnerable to Plaintext Storage of User Password
IDs: CVE-2023-4918, GHSA-5q66-v53q-pm35
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2023-4918 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 16:17 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 8.8)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: org.keycloak:keycloak-core 22.0.3. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Maven org.keycloak:keycloak-core: affected >= 22.0.2, <= 22.0.2; fixed in 22.0.3

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Maven org.keycloak:keycloak-core: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on org.keycloak:keycloak-core.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-5q66-v53q-pm35 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-5q66-v53q-pm35 lists affected ranges: Maven org.keycloak:keycloak-core >=22.0.2 <=22.0.2)

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