WSO2 Identity Server/Carbon OAuth User Impersonation Flow improper authorization

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in WSO2 Identity Server and Carbon OAuth. The impacted element is an unknown function of the component User Impersonation Flow. The manipulation leads to improper authorization. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2025-12627. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in WSO2 Identity Server and Carbon OAuth (version now known). This issue affects some unknown processing of the component User Impersonation Flow. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a improper authorization vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-285. The product does not perform or incorrectly performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

The user impersonation flow in WSO2 Identity Server fails to properly manage refresh tokens associated with impersonated sessions. This allows an attacker who has obtained an access token for an impersonated user to leverage the refresh token grant to obtain new access tokens, extending their ability to act as the legitimate user. An attacker who gains access to an impersonated user's access token can exploit this weakness to renew their authorization. This results in the continued ability to perform actions on behalf of the actual user, compromising log integrity and traceability by masking the true actor.

The advisory is shared at security.docs.wso2.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-12627 since 11/03/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 08/06/2026). MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1548.002 for this issue.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• WSO2

Name

• Carbon OAuth
• Identity Server

License

• commercial

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