CVE-2020-12689

An issue was discovered in OpenStack Keystone before 15.0.1, and 16.0.0. Any user authenticated within a limited scope (trust/oauth/application credential) can create an EC2 credential with an escalated permission, such as obtaining admin while the user is on a limited viewer role. This potentially allows a malicious user to act as the admin on a project another user has the admin role on, which can effectively grant that user global admin privileges.

Published: 2020-05-07 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-12689 is rated Moderate Risk (60.9/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.56%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-12689

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 1.07% 1.56% +0.50%
2 2026-03-02 0.62% 1.07% +0.44%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.62% —

Full EPSS history (19 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-12689

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.8 5.9 [email protected]
6.5 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 8.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-12689

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-12689

GHSA-chgw-36xv-47cw · Severity: high · Ecosystem: pip — OpenStack Keystone EC2 and/or credential endpoints are not protected from a scoped context

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-12689

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-12689 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (keystone), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-12689
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-12689
suse high — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-12689/
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-12689 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (keystone), 17 status rows across 17 suites (bionic, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 12, released 2, DNE 1, ignored 1, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-12689

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-12689

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
openstack keystone < 15.0.1 cpe:2.3:a:openstack:keystone:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
openstack keystone 16.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:openstack:keystone:16.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-12689

cvelogic Threat Intelligence