Keycloak Auth Level Enforcement Bypass
CVE-2026-97176 Published on September 24, 2026
Keycloak-services: keycloak-services: essential acr requirement silently bypassed via cookie authenticator
A flaw was found in the Level of Authentication enforcement mechanism of Keycloak, an identity and access management solution. The issue occurs when a client specifically requires a higher security level for a user who already has an active session at a lower level. Due to a logic error in how session re-evaluations are handled, Keycloak may incorrectly issue a token at the lower security level instead of enforcing the required higher level, potentially allowing unauthorized access to sensitive resources that rely on these security claims.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2026-97176 is exploitable with network access, and requires small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is consided to have a high level of attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have a small impact on confidentiality and integrity, and no impact on availability.
Timeline
Reported to Red Hat.
Made public.
Weakness Type
What is an AuthZ Vulnerability?
The software does not perform an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.
CVE-2026-97176 has been classified to as an AuthZ vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-97176
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