CVE-2025-0604 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting Keycloak, an open-source identity and access management solution widely used for single sign-on and authentication services. The flaw arises during the password reset process for users authenticated via Active Directory (AD). Specifically, when an AD user resets their password through Keycloak, the system updates the password without performing an LDAP bind operation to validate the new credentials against the AD server. Normally, an LDAP bind is required to ensure that the credentials are valid and that the user account is active and authorized. Due to this missing validation step, users whose AD accounts are expired or disabled can bypass AD restrictions and regain access through Keycloak. This results in an authentication bypass vulnerability, allowing unauthorized access under certain conditions. The vulnerability does not require user interaction and can be exploited remotely over the network (AV:N), with low attack complexity (AC:L) but requires some privileges (PR:L) within Keycloak to initiate the password reset. The impact primarily affects confidentiality and integrity, as unauthorized users may gain access to protected resources, but availability is not impacted. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild. The vulnerability was published on January 22, 2025, with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.4 (medium severity). The issue highlights a critical flaw in the integration between Keycloak and AD, where the lack of proper credential validation during password reset undermines the security controls enforced by AD, potentially allowing expired or disabled accounts to be reactivated within Keycloak's authentication context.

For European organizations, especially those relying on Keycloak integrated with Active Directory for identity management, this vulnerability poses a significant risk. Unauthorized users with expired or disabled AD accounts could regain access to corporate systems, potentially leading to data breaches, unauthorized data access, and lateral movement within networks. This could compromise sensitive personal data protected under GDPR, leading to regulatory penalties and reputational damage. The impact is particularly critical for sectors with stringent access controls such as finance, healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure. Since Keycloak is commonly deployed in enterprise environments across Europe, the vulnerability could undermine trust in identity management systems and complicate compliance efforts. The medium severity score reflects that while exploitation requires some privileges, the ease of bypassing AD restrictions could facilitate insider threats or attackers who have limited access but seek privilege escalation. The absence of availability impact reduces the risk of denial-of-service, but the confidentiality and integrity risks remain substantial. Organizations with hybrid AD-Keycloak environments are especially vulnerable, as the flaw directly subverts AD's account status enforcement.

1. Immediate mitigation should include applying any available patches or updates from Keycloak that address this vulnerability once released. 2. Until patches are available, organizations should enforce additional monitoring and alerting on password reset activities within Keycloak, especially for accounts that are expired or disabled in AD. 3. Implement strict access controls to limit who can perform password resets in Keycloak, reducing the risk of exploitation by users with limited privileges. 4. Consider integrating additional verification steps during password resets, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), to reduce the risk of unauthorized resets. 5. Regularly synchronize and audit AD account statuses against Keycloak user states to detect discrepancies and potential unauthorized access. 6. Employ network segmentation and least privilege principles to limit the impact of compromised accounts. 7. Review and harden Keycloak configuration to ensure it does not override or bypass AD account restrictions inadvertently. 8. Conduct security awareness training for administrators and users on the risks associated with password resets and account management. These measures go beyond generic advice by focusing on compensating controls and monitoring tailored to the specific flaw in the AD-Keycloak integration.