CVE-2026-97176 Keycloak-services: keycloak-services: essential acr requirement silently bypassed via cookie authenticator
Attackers can bypass Level of Authentication enforcement to access sensitive resources with lower security claims than required.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-97176?
CVE-2026-97176 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Red Hat Build of Keycloak, published on 24 Sep 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A flaw was found in the Level of Authentication enforcement mechanism of Keycloak, an identity and access management solution. The issue occurs when a client specifically requires a higher security level for a user who already has an active session at a lower level. Due to a logic error in how session re-evaluations are handled, Keycloak may incorrectly issue a token at the lower security level instead of enforcing the required higher level, potentially allowing unauthorized access to sensitive resources that rely on these security claims.
Weakness: CWE-862
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-97176?
How do I fix CVE-2026-97176?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-97176 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.
Is CVE-2026-97176 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-97176 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-5jw9-cc9v-8h8r.