CVE-2025-7784 is a vulnerability identified in the Red Hat build of Keycloak version 26, an open-source identity and access management system widely used for authentication and authorization services. The flaw arises when Fine-Grained Admin Permissions version 2 (FGAPv2) are enabled. Specifically, an administrative user possessing the 'manage-users' role can exploit improper privilege enforcement to escalate their privileges to 'realm-admin'. This escalation bypasses the intended separation of administrative duties, allowing a user with limited administrative rights to gain full administrative control over a realm. The vulnerability impacts confidentiality and integrity by enabling unauthorized access and modification of sensitive identity and access management configurations. The CVSS 3.1 score is 6.5 (medium severity), reflecting that the vulnerability requires network access, low attack complexity, and privileges at the 'manage-users' level but does not require user interaction. The scope remains unchanged, and the impact affects confidentiality and integrity but not availability. No known exploits are reported in the wild as of the publication date (July 18, 2025).

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk, especially for enterprises and public sector entities relying on Keycloak for identity management and access control. Unauthorized privilege escalation to realm-admin can lead to full control over user identities, roles, and permissions within the affected realm, potentially allowing attackers to impersonate users, access sensitive data, or disrupt authentication flows. This can compromise GDPR compliance by exposing personal data and undermine trust in critical systems. Organizations in sectors such as finance, healthcare, government, and telecommunications, which often use Keycloak or Red Hat's build thereof, face increased risk of insider threats or external attackers leveraging compromised credentials to exploit this flaw. The lack of known exploits currently provides a window for proactive mitigation, but the medium severity score indicates that exploitation is feasible and impactful.

To mitigate CVE-2025-7784, organizations should: 1) Immediately review and restrict the assignment of the 'manage-users' role to only trusted administrators, minimizing the attack surface. 2) Apply any available patches or updates from Red Hat or the Keycloak project as soon as they are released; monitor vendor advisories closely. 3) If patching is not immediately possible, consider disabling Fine-Grained Admin Permissions (FGAPv2) temporarily or implementing compensating controls such as enhanced monitoring and alerting on privilege changes and administrative actions. 4) Conduct thorough audits of administrative roles and permissions to detect any unauthorized privilege escalations. 5) Employ multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all administrative accounts to reduce the risk of credential compromise. 6) Implement network segmentation and least privilege principles to limit access to Keycloak administrative interfaces. 7) Regularly review logs and use anomaly detection tools to identify suspicious administrative behavior indicative of exploitation attempts.