What is CVE-2020-12691?

CVE-2020-12691 is a high-severity vulnerability in OpenStack Keystone, classified under Incorrect Authorization. CVSS score: 8.8/10. Published 2020-05-07.

How severe is CVE-2020-12691?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.8 out of 10.

Is CVE-2020-12691 known to be exploited?

1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Auth bypass in OpenStack Keystone

CVE-2020-12691

An issue was discovered in OpenStack Keystone before 15.0.1, and 16.0.0. Any authenticated user can create an EC2 credential for themselves for a project that they have a specified role on, and then perform an update to the credential user and project, allowing them to masquerade as another user. This potentially allows a malicious user to act as the admin on a project another user has the admin role on, which can effectively grant that user global admin privileges.

Vulnerability class: Broken Access Control

Published 2020-05-07 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 8.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.049 (92.0th percentile), scored 2026-10-20.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 92nd percentile — 92.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.049 · newest: 0.049 · change: 0.000

Affected products

OpenStack Keystone — versions 16.0.0
Canonical Ubuntu Linux — versions 18.04

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-863 — Incorrect Authorization

Public proof-of-concept exploits

jckling/jckling

References

security.openstack.org/ossa/OSSA-2020-004.html (Vendor Advisory)
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/05/06/5 (Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
bugs.launchpad.net/keystone/+bug/1872733 (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/05/07/2 (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
lists.apache.org/thread.html/re4ffc55cd2f1b55a26e07c83b3c22c3fe4bae6054d000a57f… (mailing-list)
usn.ubuntu.com/4480-1/ (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
lists.apache.org/thread.html/re237267da268c690df5e1c6ea6a38a7fc11617725e8049490… (mailing-list)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-12691?: CVE-2020-12691 is a high-severity vulnerability in OpenStack Keystone, classified under Incorrect Authorization. CVSS score: 8.8/10. Published 2020-05-07.
How severe is CVE-2020-12691?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2020-12691 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.