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KeycloakApplication · Redhat

CVE-2019-14910

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-12-05
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
A vulnerability was found in keycloak 7.x, when keycloak is configured with LDAP user federation and StartTLS is used instead of SSL/TLS from the LDAP server (ldaps), in this case user authentication succeeds even if invalid password has entered.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Keycloak 7.x contains an authentication bypass vulnerability in its LDAP user federation component. When StartTLS is used to upgrade an LDAP connection to TLS (instead of using LDAPS with SSL/TLS), the password validation is improperly handled, allowing authentication to succeed with any password, including invalid ones.

MitigationUpgrade to a patched Keycloak version, or ensure LDAPS (SSL/TLS on port 636) is used instead of StartTLS on port 389.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
KeycloakApplication
Affected:= 7.0.0= 7.0.1

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Keycloak version
    Check the installed Keycloak version in the server metadata or management console
    Affected if Version is exactly 7.0.0 or 7.0.1
  2. Locate LDAP user federation configuration
    Find the LDAP user federation provider configuration in the Keycloak realm settings or configuration files
    Affected if An LDAP user federation provider is configured and active
  3. Verify LDAP connection security mechanism
    Inspect the LDAP connection settings to determine if StartTLS is enabled (rather than LDAPS on port 636)
    Affected if StartTLS is used for LDAP connection encryption
  4. Confirm LDAP server port in use
    Check the configured LDAP server port in the federation provider settings
    Affected if Port 389 (standard LDAP with StartTLS) is configured instead of port 636 (LDAPS)

A user is affected if they run Keycloak version 7.0.0 or 7.0.1 with an LDAP user federation provider configured to use StartTLS on port 389.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade to a patched Keycloak version, or ensure LDAPS (SSL/TLS on port 636) is used instead of StartTLS on port 389.

Fix this in Keycloak Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
21.0 hours of engineering $3,680
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-14910 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data