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CVE Record

CVE-2021-3563: A flaw was found in openstack-keystone.

A flaw was found in openstack-keystone. Only the first 72 characters of an application secret are verified allowing attackers bypass some password complexity which administrators may be counting on. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity.

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysisunknown

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

Keystone, OpenStack's identity service, may verify only the first 72 characters of an application secret. This can weaken security assumptions for long secrets and may let attackers bypass complexity protections administrators expected to enforce, with possible confidentiality and integrity impact.

Executive priority

Treat as a targeted identity-control weakness. Prioritize environments where OpenStack Keystone protects sensitive workloads or administrative cloud access, but avoid emergency escalation unless vendor status or local exposure confirms affected systems.

Technical view

CVE-2021-3563 is reported in openstack-keystone. Application secret verification is limited to the first 72 characters, so trailing characters may not affect validation. The CVE maps to CWE-863, but the bundle does not provide CVSS, exact affected versions, or complete vendor fix details.

Likely exposure

Exposure is likely limited to environments running OpenStack Keystone with application credentials or application secrets. The provided affected version data is incomplete, so vulnerability managers should verify deployed Keystone packages against OpenStack, Red Hat, and Debian advisories.

Exploitation context

The source bundle does not cite public exploitation, and CISA KEV status is false. The issue is still security-relevant because it can reduce effective secret strength where administrators relied on long application secrets and complexity policies.

Researcher notes

Key missing evidence includes CVSS, exact vulnerable versions, and detailed fix state in the provided bundle. The core research focus is confirming Keystone application secret handling and mapping distribution package versions to advisory status.

Mitigation direction

  • Check OpenStack Keystone, Red Hat, and Debian guidance for affected and fixed package versions.
  • Apply vendor-provided Keystone security updates where available.
  • Rotate application secrets after remediation, especially long secrets created under affected versions.
  • Review secret policy assumptions for application credentials.
  • Monitor Keystone authentication logs for unusual application credential activity.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory all OpenStack Keystone deployments and package versions.
  • Confirm whether deployed versions match affected ranges in vendor advisories.
  • Identify use of Keystone application credentials and long application secrets.
  • Review change history for secret rotations after any Keystone update.
  • Check identity logs for unexpected application credential authentication patterns.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
6

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.

ATT&CK lookup starting points

Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.

cwe · medium confidence lookup

CWE-863: Authorization and privilege behavior lookup

Authorization weaknesses can support privilege escalation and valid-account review, depending on exploit path. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.

Open ATT&CK lookup
description · low confidence lookup

Credential and access behavior lookup

The CVE wording references authentication or credential exposure, so valid-account and credential-access review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.

Open ATT&CK lookup
cve · low confidence lookup

CVE-2021-3563 mapping review

Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Unknown
CVSS
Not scored
Known Exploited
No
Published
Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

0CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
6Source links

CVSS and timeline data

No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
n/akeystoneNot-knownListed
Weakness

CWE details

CWE-863

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.

CWE-863 · source CWE mapping

Incorrect Authorization

Incorrect Authorization represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.

Open CWE intelligenceSame-CWE CVEs