CVE-2024-7318 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting Keycloak, an open-source identity and access management solution widely used for authentication and authorization in enterprise environments. The issue arises from the handling of One-Time Passwords (OTPs) generated by FreeOTP when the OTP token period is set to the default 30 seconds. Normally, OTPs expire after 30 seconds, but due to this vulnerability, expired OTP codes remain valid for an additional 30 seconds, effectively doubling the validity period to 1 minute. This means that at any given time, two OTPs can be valid simultaneously: the current OTP and the immediately preceding one that should have expired. This extended validity window increases the attack surface by providing malicious actors with a longer timeframe to reuse or intercept OTPs, potentially compromising user accounts. The vulnerability impacts confidentiality and integrity by enabling unauthorized access through OTP reuse, although it does not affect availability. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 4.8 (medium), reflecting network attack vector, high attack complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction, and limited impact on confidentiality and integrity. No known exploits are reported in the wild as of the publication date. The affected versions include Keycloak versions up to 25.0.0, with the vulnerability reserved as of July 31, 2024, and published on September 9, 2024. The root cause is the improper expiration handling of OTP tokens, which should be strictly invalidated after their designated period to prevent reuse.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a moderate risk primarily to the confidentiality and integrity of user authentication processes. Organizations relying on Keycloak for identity management and using FreeOTP for two-factor authentication (2FA) may experience an increased risk of account compromise due to the extended validity of OTPs. Attackers could exploit this window to replay OTPs, bypassing the intended security controls and gaining unauthorized access to sensitive systems or data. This is particularly critical for sectors with high-value targets such as finance, healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure, where identity compromise can lead to data breaches, fraud, or disruption of services. The vulnerability does not affect system availability, but the potential for unauthorized access could lead to further exploitation or lateral movement within networks. Since Keycloak is widely adopted in enterprise and public sector environments across Europe, the impact could be significant if not addressed promptly.

To mitigate CVE-2024-7318, European organizations should: 1) Immediately update Keycloak to the latest patched version once available, as no patch links are currently provided but updates are expected given the vulnerability's publication. 2) Review and tighten OTP token lifetime configurations, ensuring that OTPs strictly expire after the intended 30-second window without overlap. 3) Implement additional monitoring and anomaly detection for authentication attempts, focusing on repeated or out-of-window OTP usage that could indicate exploitation attempts. 4) Consider deploying alternative or supplementary 2FA methods that do not rely solely on time-based OTPs, such as hardware tokens or push-based authentication, to reduce reliance on vulnerable OTP implementations. 5) Educate users and administrators about the risk of OTP reuse and encourage prompt reporting of suspicious authentication activity. 6) Conduct regular security assessments of identity management systems to detect and remediate similar timing or token validation issues proactively.