Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
A highly privileged Keystone user could abuse an unrestricted application credential to obtain access to another OpenStack project. Successful abuse could expose or alter resources across project boundaries within the credential owner’s existing role footprint. The issue is rated high severity, but requires significant privileges and complexity.
Executive priority
Prioritize prompt remediation for multi-tenant or strongly separated OpenStack environments. The prerequisite privileges reduce immediate likelihood, but successful abuse could bypass project isolation and affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Treat unrestricted application credentials as elevated risk until all Keystone control planes are confirmed fixed.
Technical view
Keystone failed to ensure that an EC2 credential’s supplied project_id matched the project associated with the authenticating application credential. A credential created for another project could later be exchanged through /v3/ec2tokens for a token scoped to that project while retaining the original app_cred_id. CVSS 3.1 is 8.0, with network access, high complexity, high privileges, and changed scope.
Likely exposure
Exposure applies to OpenStack environments running vulnerable Keystone releases where users hold unrestricted application credentials and can use EC2 credential and token-exchange APIs. The bundle states versions before 29.0.2 are affected, while its structured version list specifically names 14.0.0, 28.0.0, and 29.0.0; confirm exact supported-package status with vendor advisories.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not establish active exploitation, and the CVE is not listed as KEV. Exploitation requires an attacker already holding an unrestricted application credential and operates within the credential owner’s role footprint. Despite these constraints, crossing project boundaries can materially undermine tenant isolation.
Researcher notes
The authorization failure maps to improper validation and authorization weaknesses, identified as CWE-1288 and CWE-863. The token retains the originating app_cred_id while gaining target-project scope, which may complicate attribution. The supplied evidence does not quantify real-world exploitation, affected deployment prevalence, or all fixed downstream package versions.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade Keystone to 29.0.2 or a vendor-provided fixed package applicable to your deployment.
- Review the OpenStack and distribution advisories for branch-specific remediation guidance.
- Restrict or revoke unnecessary unrestricted application credentials until remediation is complete.
- Limit access to EC2 credential and token-exchange APIs where operationally feasible.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Keystone versions and distribution package revisions across every control plane.
- Confirm installed packages match fixed versions identified by OpenStack or your distribution vendor.
- Identify unrestricted application credentials and review whether each remains operationally necessary.
- Review Keystone logs for unusual EC2 credential creation or cross-project token-scoping activity.
- After upgrading, verify project matching is enforced without attempting unauthorized access.
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-1288: 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 lookupCWE-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 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-2026-43001 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
- High
- CVSS
- 8 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
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
2 official scoresWe 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:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H1.36redhat-SADPCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L1.36mitreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
8HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Base CVSS 3.1 score
7.9HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- ADP timelineredhat-SADP
Made public.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- ADP timelineredhat-SADP
Reported to Red Hat.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
- 2026-05-01T09:00:55.408Z: Reported to Red Hat.
- 2026-05-01T00:00:00.000Z: Made public.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/keystone/+bug/2149775CVE reference, mitre
- https://review.opendev.org/c/openstack/keystone/+/985804CVE reference, mitre
- https://security.openstack.org/ossa/OSSA-2026-015.htmlCVE reference, mitre
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-43001CVE reference, redhat-SADP · vdb-entry, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2464305CVE reference, redhat-SADP · issue-tracking, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-43001.jsonCVE reference, redhat-SADP · x_sadp-csaf-vex
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54757CVE reference, redhat-SADP · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:39808CVE reference, redhat-SADP · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
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.
Improper Validation of Consistency within Input
Improper Validation of Consistency within Input represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.
Incorrect Authorization
Incorrect Authorization represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.