CVE-2026-42998
Published: 28 May 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-42998 is a medium-severity Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) vulnerability in Openstack Keystone. Its CVSS base score is 6.0 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Cloud Accounts (T1078.004); ranked at the 22.1th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
No EU or UK CSIRT advisories indexed for this CVE.
Vulnerability details
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…
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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.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Auth plugin flaw directly allows issuance of victim-scoped tokens via attacker-controlled app credentials, enabling cloud account impersonation and token misuse.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Periodic review and update of procedures reduces incorrect authorization implementations over time.
Supervision identifies cases where authorization logic incorrectly permits unauthorized actions.
Defining permitted attribute values and auditing modifications reduces the chance of incorrect authorization outcomes due to tampered or missing labels.
The authorization process and usage restrictions help prevent incorrect authorization for remote access types.
Establishing configuration and connection requirements helps ensure correct rather than incorrect authorization for wireless access.
Establishing connection authorization processes for mobile devices helps ensure authorization decisions are correctly implemented rather than incorrect.
Monitoring account use, notifying on changes, and reviewing accounts for compliance corrects incorrect authorization assignments.
Ensures authorization decisions for external system use are correctly implemented and enforced.