The 'welcome' page that is shown when a user starts Keycloak for the first time, has been redesigned to provide a better setup experience and has been upgraded to the latest version of https://www.patternfly.org/[PatternFly]. The page layout has been simplified and now includes only a form to register the administrative user. After completing the registration, the user is redirected directly to the Administration Console.
image::images/new-welcome-screen.png["A screenshot of the new welcome page, showing a simplified layout with a user registration form."]
If you are using a custom theme, you may need to update it to support the new welcome page. For more details consult the link:{upgradingguide_link}[{upgradingguide_name}].
The Keycloak JS adapter now uses the https://webpack.js.org/guides/package-exports/[`exports` field] in its `package.json`. This change improves support for more modern bundlers like Webpack 5 and Vite, but comes with some unavoidable breaking changes. Consult the link:{upgradingguide_link}[{upgradingguide_name}] for more details.
== PKCE enabled by default
The Keycloak JS adapter now sets the `pkceMethod` option to `S256` by default. This enables Proof Key Code Exchange (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7636[PKCE]) for all applications using the adapter. If you are using the adapter on a system that doesn't support PKCE, you can set the `pkceMethod` option to `false` to disable it.
Keycloak introduces an improved truststores configuration options. The Keycloak truststore is now used across the server: for outgoing connections, mTLS, database drivers and more. It's no longer needed to configure separate truststores for individual areas. To configure the truststore, you can put your truststores files or certificates in the default `conf/truststores`, or use the new `truststore-paths` config option. For details refer to the relevant https://www.keycloak.org/server/keycloak-truststore[guide].
Features now support versioning. For preserving backward compatibility all existing features (incl. `account2` and `account3`) are marked as version 1. Newly introduced feature will leverage the versioning allowing users to easily select between different implementations of desired features.
For details refer to the https://www.keycloak.org/server/features[features guide].
The SAML identity providers can now be configured to automatically download the signing certificates from the IDP entity metadata descriptor endpoint. In order to use the new feature the option `Metadata descriptor URL` should be configured in the provider (URL where the IDP metadata information with the certificates is published) and `Use metadata descriptor URL` needs to be `ON`. The certificates are automatically downloaded and cached in the `public-key-storage` SPI from that URL. The certificates can also be reloaded or imported from the admin console, using the action combo in the provider page.
See the https://www.keycloak.org/docs/latest/server_admin/index.html#saml-v2-0-identity-providers[documentation] for more details about the new options.
A new health check endpoint available at `/lb-check` was added.
The execution is running in the event loop which means this check is responsive also in overloaded situations when Keycloak needs to handle many requests waiting in request queue.
This behavior is useful, for example, in multi-site deployment where we do not want to fail over to the other site under heavy load.
The endpoint is currently checking availability of the embedded and external Infinispan caches. Other checks may be added later.
This endpoint is not available by default.
To enable it, run Keycloak with feature `multi-site`.
The Keycloak CR now includes an `startOptimized` field, which may be used to override the default assumption about whether to use the `--optimized` flag for the start command.
It is now possible to separately enable parsing of either `Forwarded` or `X-Forwarded-*` headers via the new `--proxy-headers` option.
For details consult the https://www.keycloak.org/server/reverseproxy[Reverse Proxy Guide].
The original `--proxy` option is now deprecated and will be removed in a future release. For migration instructions consult the link:{upgradingguide_link}[{upgradingguide_name}].
= Changes to the user representation in both Admin API and Account contexts
In this release, we are encapsulating the root user attributes (such as `username`, `email`, `firstName`, `lastName`, and `locale`) by moving them to a base/abstract class in order to align how these attributes
are marshalled and unmarshalled when using both Admin and Account REST APIs.
This strategy provides consistency in how attributes are managed by clients and makes sure they conform to the user profile
The default behavior of Keycloak is to load offline sessions on demand.
The old behavior to preload them at startup is now deprecated, as pre-loading them at startup doesn't scale well with a growing number of sessions, and increases Keycloak memory usage. The old behavior will be removed in a future release.
In previous versions of Keycloak when the last member of a User, Group or Client policy was deleted then that policy would also be deleted. Unfortunately this could lead to an escalation of privileges if the policy was used in an aggregate policy. To avoid privilege escalation the effect policies are no longer deleted and an administrator will need to update those policies.
