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Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key vulnerability in Apache ZooKeeper

Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published Oct 11, 2023 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Jun 21, 2024

Package

maven org.apache.zookeeper:zookeeper (Maven)

Affected versions

< 3.7.2
>= 3.8.0, < 3.8.3
>= 3.9.0, < 3.9.1

Patched versions

3.7.2
3.8.3
3.9.1

Description

Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key vulnerability in Apache ZooKeeper. If SASL Quorum Peer authentication is enabled in ZooKeeper (quorum.auth.enableSasl=true), the authorization is done by verifying that the instance part in SASL authentication ID is listed in zoo.cfg server list. The instance part in SASL auth ID is optional and if it's missing, like '[email protected]', the authorization check will be skipped. As a result an arbitrary endpoint could join the cluster and begin propagating counterfeit changes to the leader, essentially giving it complete read-write access to the data tree. Quorum Peer authentication is not enabled by default.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.9.1, 3.8.3, 3.7.2, which fixes the issue.

Alternately ensure the ensemble election/quorum communication is protected by a firewall as this will mitigate the issue.

See the documentation for more details on correct cluster administration.

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database Oct 11, 2023
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Oct 11, 2023
Reviewed Oct 11, 2023
Last updated Jun 21, 2024

Severity

Critical
9.1
/ 10

CVSS base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2023-44981

GHSA ID

GHSA-7286-pgfv-vxvh

Source code

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