CVE-2025-14778 is a vulnerability identified in the Red Hat Build of Keycloak, specifically within the UserManagedPermissionService (UMA Protection API). The issue arises from improper privilege checks when updating or deleting UMA policies that are associated with multiple resources. The authorization logic only verifies the caller's ownership against the first resource in the policy's resource list. Consequently, a user who owns one resource (Owner A) can modify or delete a shared UMA policy and thereby alter authorization rules for other resources (e.g., RB) owned by different users (Owner B). This flaw constitutes a horizontal privilege escalation, allowing unauthorized modification of access controls across resources. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.4 (medium severity), reflecting network exploitability (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), required privileges (PR:L), no user interaction (UI:N), unchanged scope (S:U), and limited impact on confidentiality and integrity (C:L, I:L), with no impact on availability (A:N). There are no known exploits in the wild, and no patches or affected versions were explicitly listed at the time of disclosure. The vulnerability affects environments where multiple resources share UMA policies and where users have ownership of at least one resource in such policies. This flaw could lead to unauthorized access control changes, potentially exposing sensitive data or compromising resource integrity.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-14778 can be significant, especially for those relying on Red Hat Build of Keycloak for identity and access management in multi-tenant or collaborative environments. The vulnerability allows horizontal privilege escalation, enabling users to modify access controls on resources they do not own. This can lead to unauthorized data exposure, manipulation of permissions, and potential compliance violations under GDPR and other data protection regulations. Confidentiality and integrity of sensitive information may be compromised, particularly in sectors like finance, healthcare, and government where strict access controls are critical. Although availability is not affected, the breach of trust and control over resource permissions could disrupt business operations and damage organizational reputation. The medium CVSS score reflects a moderate risk, but the ease of exploitation (network accessible, no user interaction) and the potential for lateral privilege abuse warrant prompt attention. Organizations with complex UMA policy configurations are at higher risk, as the flaw exploits shared policy scenarios.

To mitigate CVE-2025-14778, European organizations should: 1) Monitor Red Hat and Keycloak vendor advisories closely and apply security patches immediately once available. 2) Conduct a thorough audit of existing UMA policies, especially those shared across multiple resources, to identify and isolate policies that could be exploited. 3) Implement strict policy ownership verification processes and consider restricting shared UMA policies where feasible. 4) Enhance logging and monitoring of UMA policy modifications to detect unauthorized changes promptly. 5) Limit user privileges to the minimum necessary, reducing the number of users who can create or modify UMA policies. 6) Consider deploying compensating controls such as additional access reviews or multi-factor authentication for users managing UMA policies. 7) Educate administrators and developers about the risks of shared policies and encourage best practices in resource ownership and policy management. 8) If possible, segregate resources and policies to minimize cross-resource privilege escalation opportunities. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on the specific nature of the vulnerability and the UMA policy management context.