CVE-2025-10043 is a path traversal vulnerability affecting the Red Hat Build of Keycloak, specifically in its vault key handling on Windows platforms. The vulnerability arises because the previous fix for a related issue (CVE-2024-10492) did not properly account for the Windows file separator '\'. This oversight allows a high-privilege administrator to craft vault secret lookup requests that traverse directories outside the intended realm context. Essentially, by manipulating the file path input, an attacker with administrative privileges can probe for the existence of arbitrary files on the system, potentially gaining information about the file system structure or sensitive files that should be inaccessible within the Keycloak vault context. The vulnerability is platform-specific, affecting only Windows deployments of Keycloak due to the handling of the backslash path separator. The CVSS score is 2.7 (low severity), reflecting that exploitation requires high privileges (administrator), no user interaction, and only results in limited confidentiality impact without affecting integrity or availability. There are no known exploits in the wild, and no patches or mitigations are explicitly linked in the provided data. This vulnerability represents an incomplete fix of the previous CVE-2024-10492, indicating that the initial remediation did not fully address platform-specific path traversal vectors. While the impact is limited, it highlights the importance of comprehensive input validation and platform-aware security fixes in complex software like Keycloak, which is widely used for identity and access management.

For European organizations using the Red Hat Build of Keycloak on Windows servers, this vulnerability could allow a high-privilege administrator to probe for files outside the expected vault context. Although the impact is limited to information disclosure (confidentiality) and does not affect integrity or availability, it could aid an attacker or insider in reconnaissance activities, potentially facilitating further attacks or unauthorized data access. Since exploitation requires administrative privileges, the risk is primarily from malicious insiders or compromised admin accounts. Organizations with strict compliance requirements around data confidentiality (e.g., GDPR) should consider even limited information disclosure vulnerabilities seriously. The vulnerability could also undermine trust in Keycloak's vault mechanism, which is critical for secure secret management. However, the low CVSS score and lack of known exploits suggest a low immediate threat level. The impact is more significant in environments where Windows-based Keycloak deployments are common, and where administrative access controls may be weaker or where insider threat risk is higher.

1. Apply any forthcoming official patches from Red Hat addressing CVE-2025-10043 promptly once available. 2. Until patches are released, restrict administrative access to Keycloak instances strictly, ensuring only trusted personnel have high-privilege accounts. 3. Monitor and audit vault secret lookup requests and administrative actions for unusual or suspicious path traversal patterns, especially those involving backslash characters in Windows environments. 4. Consider deploying Keycloak on Linux-based systems where this specific vulnerability does not apply, if operationally feasible. 5. Implement defense-in-depth by isolating Keycloak servers and limiting file system permissions to minimize the impact of any path traversal attempts. 6. Review and enhance input validation routines for vault key handling to ensure all path separators and platform-specific nuances are correctly handled. 7. Conduct internal security training to raise awareness among administrators about the risks of misuse of high-privilege access and the importance of secure secret management practices.