Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
A remote, unauthenticated attacker can bypass the email-verification requirement in Keycloak’s password-reset process and set new credentials for another user. Successful abuse gives control of the targeted account, creating serious risk to systems and data protected by that identity.
Executive priority
Treat this as an emergency identity-security issue. Identify affected deployments immediately, apply vendor updates, verify the running artifacts, and investigate suspicious password-reset activity. Give highest priority to externally reachable instances and realms containing administrators or access to sensitive systems.
Technical view
The reset-credentials flow in keycloak-services fails to enforce the required email-link verification before accepting new credentials. The CVSS 3.1 score is 9.1: network-accessible, low complexity, no privileges or user interaction, with high confidentiality and integrity impact but no stated availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure applies to the specifically listed Red Hat Build of Keycloak 26.4 and 26.6 package builds where reset-credentials functionality is reachable. The bundle also marks keycloak-services 26.4.15 and 26.6.6 unaffected, so validate exact package, image, and erratum status rather than relying only on the product release number.
Exploitation context
The supplied bundle does not report active exploitation, and the CVE is not identified as being in KEV. Nevertheless, exploitation requires no authentication or user interaction and could remotely take over targeted accounts. Absence from KEV is not evidence that exploitation has not occurred.
Researcher notes
This is a CWE-640 weak password-recovery issue caused by bypassing a required verification boundary. The affected data contains seemingly adjacent affected package builds and unaffected keycloak-services releases; assessment must preserve package and artifact distinctions. The supplied evidence establishes takeover impact but provides no evidence of exploitation in the wild.
Mitigation direction
- Apply the relevant Red Hat security errata for every affected Keycloak package or container image.
- Confirm replacement artifacts are explicitly classified as fixed or unaffected by Red Hat.
- Prioritize internet-facing identity services and environments containing privileged or business-critical accounts.
- Restrict untrusted access to password-reset endpoints until remediation is verified, where operationally feasible.
- Follow Red Hat guidance for any deployment-specific mitigation or upgrade requirements.
Validation and detection
- Inventory exact Keycloak package names, image digests, release builds, and deployed versions.
- Compare each artifact against the Red Hat CVE record and its applicable security erratum.
- Verify deployed artifacts no longer match entries classified as affected in the source bundle.
- Confirm in staging that credential changes require completion of the intended email-verification step.
- Review identity audit records for unexpected reset initiations, credential changes, and subsequent suspicious logins.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
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-640: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. 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 lookupCredential 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 lookupCVE-2026-18963 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Critical
- CVSS
- 9.1 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
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.
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N3.95.2redhatVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
9.1CriticalVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- Source timelineredhat
Reported to Red Hat.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- Source timelineredhat
Made public.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- RHSA-2026:56519CVE reference, redhat · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2026:56520CVE reference, redhat · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2026:56523CVE reference, redhat · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2026:56524CVE reference, redhat · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-18963CVE reference, redhat · vdb-entry, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2511595CVE reference, redhat · issue-tracking, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-503852.htmlCVE reference, siemens-SADP
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password
Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.