CVE-2026-42999: CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization in OpenStack Keystone
An issue was discovered in OpenStack Keystone before 29.0.2. The Keystone RBAC policy enforcer in enforce_call unconditionally merges the raw JSON request body into the policy enforcement dictionary via policy_dict.update(json_input.copy()), overwriting trusted target data that was previously set from database lookups. Because flask.request.get_json is called with force=True, this works regardless of Content-Type or HTTP method. Any authenticated user can inject arbitrary policy target attributes (e.g., user_id, project_id) into the request body to bypass RBAC checks and perform unauthorized operations on resources belonging to other users or projects. This was introduced in commit 5ea59f52 (Rocky/14.0.0).
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
OpenStack Keystone before version 29.0.2 contains an incorrect authorization vulnerability (CWE-863) due to the RBAC policy enforcer's enforce_call function unconditionally merging the raw JSON request body into the policy enforcement dictionary. This overwrites trusted target data previously set from database lookups. Because flask.request.get_json is called with force=True, this merging happens regardless of Content-Type or HTTP method, allowing any authenticated user to inject arbitrary policy target attributes such as user_id or project_id. This enables bypass of RBAC checks and unauthorized access to resources belonging to other users or projects. The issue was introduced in commit 5ea59f52 corresponding to version 14.0.0 (Rocky).
Potential Impact
An authenticated user can bypass role-based access control (RBAC) restrictions by injecting arbitrary policy target attributes into requests, potentially performing unauthorized operations on resources owned by other users or projects. This leads to a confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact with low confidentiality loss, low integrity loss, and low availability loss as per the CVSS vector. The vulnerability affects multi-tenant environments where Keystone enforces access controls.
Mitigation Recommendations
Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the vendor advisory for current remediation guidance. The vulnerability is fixed in OpenStack Keystone version 29.0.2. Users should upgrade to version 29.0.2 or later to remediate this issue. Until patched, restrict authenticated user permissions to minimize risk and monitor for unusual access patterns related to Keystone API usage. Refer to the Red Hat advisory at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-42999 for official guidance.
CVE-2026-42999: CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization in OpenStack Keystone
Description
An issue was discovered in OpenStack Keystone before 29.0.2. The Keystone RBAC policy enforcer in enforce_call unconditionally merges the raw JSON request body into the policy enforcement dictionary via policy_dict.update(json_input.copy()), overwriting trusted target data that was previously set from database lookups. Because flask.request.get_json is called with force=True, this works regardless of Content-Type or HTTP method. Any authenticated user can inject arbitrary policy target attributes (e.g., user_id, project_id) into the request body to bypass RBAC checks and perform unauthorized operations on resources belonging to other users or projects. This was introduced in commit 5ea59f52 (Rocky/14.0.0).
CVSS v3.1
Score 6.0medium
Affected software
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AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
OpenStack Keystone before version 29.0.2 contains an incorrect authorization vulnerability (CWE-863) due to the RBAC policy enforcer's enforce_call function unconditionally merging the raw JSON request body into the policy enforcement dictionary. This overwrites trusted target data previously set from database lookups. Because flask.request.get_json is called with force=True, this merging happens regardless of Content-Type or HTTP method, allowing any authenticated user to inject arbitrary policy target attributes such as user_id or project_id. This enables bypass of RBAC checks and unauthorized access to resources belonging to other users or projects. The issue was introduced in commit 5ea59f52 corresponding to version 14.0.0 (Rocky).
Potential Impact
An authenticated user can bypass role-based access control (RBAC) restrictions by injecting arbitrary policy target attributes into requests, potentially performing unauthorized operations on resources owned by other users or projects. This leads to a confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact with low confidentiality loss, low integrity loss, and low availability loss as per the CVSS vector. The vulnerability affects multi-tenant environments where Keystone enforces access controls.
Mitigation Recommendations
Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the vendor advisory for current remediation guidance. The vulnerability is fixed in OpenStack Keystone version 29.0.2. Users should upgrade to version 29.0.2 or later to remediate this issue. Until patched, restrict authenticated user permissions to minimize risk and monitor for unusual access patterns related to Keystone API usage. Refer to the Red Hat advisory at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-42999 for official guidance.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- mitre
- Date Reserved
- 2026-05-01T00:00:00.000Z
- Cvss Version
- 3.1
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Remediation Level
- null
- Vendor Advisory Urls
- [{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-42999","vendor":"Red Hat"}]
Threat ID: 6a188e05e29bf47b501d67b9
Added to database: 05/28/2026, 18:48:37 UTC
Last enriched: 07/30/2026, 23:07:22 UTC
Last updated: 07/31/2026, 19:22:58 UTC
Views: 68
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