CVE-2019-14909 in KeyCloak
Summary
by MITRE
A vulnerability was found in Keycloak 7.x where the user federation LDAP bind type is none (LDAP anonymous bind), any password, invalid or valid will be accepted.
If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/07/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-14909 represents a critical authentication bypass flaw in Keycloak version 7.x that fundamentally undermines the security of user authentication mechanisms. This issue specifically affects the LDAP user federation configuration where the bind type is set to none, which enables anonymous LDAP binding. The flaw allows attackers to authenticate as any user within the system regardless of whether the provided password is correct, invalid, or even non-existent. This represents a severe deviation from expected authentication behavior where the system should validate credentials against the LDAP directory before granting access to protected resources.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from improper validation of authentication credentials within the LDAP user federation component of Keycloak. When the bind type is configured as none, the system should still validate that the user exists and is authorized within the LDAP directory, but instead it accepts any password provided during the authentication process. This misconfiguration creates a scenario where the LDAP anonymous bind functionality is exploited to bypass normal authentication checks entirely. The vulnerability specifically affects the authentication flow where Keycloak fails to properly validate user credentials against the LDAP server when anonymous binding is enabled, effectively rendering the password field meaningless in the authentication process.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates a significant security risk for organizations relying on Keycloak for identity management and access control. Attackers can exploit this flaw to gain unauthorized access to protected applications and resources that are secured through Keycloak's authentication mechanisms. The vulnerability essentially allows for privilege escalation and unauthorized access to sensitive data, user accounts, and system resources that should only be accessible to legitimate authenticated users. Organizations may experience unauthorized data access, potential data breaches, and compromise of user credentials across all applications protected by the vulnerable Keycloak instance. This flaw particularly affects environments where Keycloak serves as a central identity provider for multiple applications and services, amplifying the potential impact of the vulnerability.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-287 which addresses improper authentication issues in software systems, specifically addressing the problem of accepting invalid authentication credentials. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to technique T1078 which covers valid accounts and privilege escalation through the exploitation of authentication bypass mechanisms. Organizations should immediately implement mitigations including updating to Keycloak versions that address this vulnerability, configuring LDAP bind types to use proper authentication methods rather than anonymous binding, and implementing additional security controls such as multi-factor authentication and access monitoring. The recommended approach involves disabling anonymous LDAP binding in user federation configurations and ensuring that all authentication flows properly validate credentials against the LDAP directory. Additionally, organizations should conduct thorough security assessments of their Keycloak deployments to identify and remediate similar misconfigurations that could lead to authentication bypass scenarios.