Auth bypass in OpenStack Keystone

CVE-2026-42998

An issue was discovered in OpenStack Keystone before 29.0.2. The Keystone application credential authentication plugin does not verify that the user supplied in the authentication request matches the owner of the application credential. An attacker can authenticate with their own application credential ID and secret while specifying a different user's name and domain in the request body. Keystone issues a token attributed to the victim user. The impersonated token is project-scoped and carries the intersection of the application credential's roles and the victim's actual roles on the project. This enables audit evasion, reading the victim's credentials, and acting as the victim within shared projects.

Vulnerability class: Broken Access Control

EPSS: 0.003 (22.6th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.0 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-42998?
CVE-2026-42998 is a medium-severity vulnerability in OpenStack Keystone, classified under Incorrect Authorization. CVSS score: 6.0/10. Published 2026-05-28.
How severe is CVE-2026-42998?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.0 out of 10.