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CVE-2026-53913 – Authentication Bypass / Unauthenticated RCE – Apache Camel camel-keycloak (4.15….

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Summary

CVE-2026-53913 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in the Apache Camel Keycloak Component (camel-keycloak), rated CVSS v3.1 9.8 (Critical). The flaw causes KeycloakSecurityPolicy to skip all cryptographic token verification in the default ("Basic Setup") configuration, allowing any request bearing a non-null Authorization: Bearer value — including a forged or unsigned JWT — to reach protected routes without authentication. On routes that forward to code-execution-capable producers, this can result in unauthenticated remote code execution.

Technical details

  • Root cause: KeycloakSecurityProcessor.beforeProcess() performs cryptographic verification of bearer tokens — signature, issuer, and expiry for local JWTs, or active-state and issuer for token introspection — exclusively inside role and permission validation blocks. Since requiredRoles and requiredPermissions both default to empty in the documented "Basic Setup," those blocks are never entered and the token is never verified.
  • Trigger conditions: Any deployment using the default KeycloakSecurityPolicy without explicitly setting requiredRoles or requiredPermissions. The policy performs only a token-presence check: a missing Authorization: Bearer header is rejected, but any non-null bearer value — including an arbitrary string — is accepted without validation.
  • Attack vector: A single unauthenticated HTTP(S) request carrying any non-null Authorization: Bearer header value. allowTokenFromHeader defaults to true, making the token trivially injectable from the request header with no special prerequisites.
  • Impact: Unauthenticated access to all routes protected by a default-configured KeycloakSecurityPolicy. Where protected routes forward to code-execution-capable producers, the bypass escalates to unauthenticated remote code execution, with full impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H).

Affected software

  • Apache Camel 4.15.0 through 4.18.2 (the camel-keycloak component was introduced in 4.15.0; versions prior to 4.15.0 are not affected)
  • Apache Camel 4.19.0 through 4.20.x

Severity

CVSS v3.1 Base Score: 9.8 (Critical)
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate — upgrade: Upgrade to Apache Camel 4.21.0. Users on the 4.18.x release stream should upgrade to 4.18.3.
  • If immediate upgrade is not possible — workarounds:
    • Configure a non-empty requiredRoles or requiredPermissions on every KeycloakSecurityPolicy instance to force the token-verification path to execute on every request.
    • Set allowTokenFromHeader to false on policies where the bearer token is not expected to arrive via the inbound request header.
    • Perform token verification at the framework layer (e.g., a servlet filter or API gateway) upstream of the KeycloakSecurityPolicy, so tokens are validated before reaching the Camel route.

IONIX Status

The IONIX research team is tracking ongoing exploitation attempts and recommends immediate patching. Potentially affected assets are outlined in this post.

References

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