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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2020-17516 json

Authentication Bypass in Apache Cassandra

published 5y ago modified 2mo ago also BIT-cassandra-2020-17516 , EUVD-2022-0769 , GHSA-2vxm-vp4c-fjfw

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.0%
EPSS 2.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 80%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Apache Cassandra versions 2.1.0 to 2.1.22, 2.2.0 to 2.2.19, 3.0.0 to 3.0.23, and 3.11.0 to 3.11.9, when using 'dc' or 'rack' internode_encryption setting, allows both encrypted and unencrypted internode connections. A misconfigured node or a malicious user can use the unencrypted connection despite not being in the same rack or dc, and bypass mutual TLS requirement.

Patch / fix

  • maven org.apache.cassandra:cassandra-all 3.0.24, 3.11.10
  • bitnami cassandra 2.1.23, 2.2.20, 3.0.24, 3.11.10
  • kibana OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8, OpenStack Cloud 8, HPE Helion OpenStack 8 4.6.6-3.9.2
  • grafana OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8, OpenStack Cloud 8, HPE Helion OpenStack 8 6.7.4-4.18.2
  • cassandra OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8, OpenStack Cloud 8, HPE Helion OpenStack 8 3.11.10-5.3.5
  • python-py OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8, OpenStack Cloud 8, HPE Helion OpenStack 8 1.4.34-3.3.3
  • crowbar-core OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8 5.0+git.1622489449.a8e60e238-3.50.4
  • python-Django OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8, OpenStack Cloud 8, HPE Helion OpenStack 8 1.11.29-3.25.3
  • ardana-cobbler OpenStack Cloud 8, HPE Helion OpenStack 8 8.0+git.1614096566.e8c2b27-3.44.3
  • openstack-nova OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8, OpenStack Cloud 8, HPE Helion OpenStack 8 16.1.9~dev92-3.48.5

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2021:2554-1SUSE-SU-2021:1962-1

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2020-17516 updated cvss 5.9

cassandra: internode encryption enforcement vulnerability

  • Red Hat Fuse 7 cassandra Red Hat Integration Camel K 1 cassandra Red Hat JBoss Operations Network 3 cassandra
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

1.96% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 80% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
GitHub 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
OSV 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven org.apache.cassandra:cassandra-all
>=2.1.0, <3.0.24
>=3.11.0, <3.11.10
3.0.24
3.11.10
bitnami cassandra
>=2.1.0, <2.1.23
>=2.2.0, <2.2.20
>=3.0.0, <3.0.24
>=3.11.0, <3.11.10
2.1.23
2.2.20
3.0.24
3.11.10

Affected products

  • n/a Apache Cassandra

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-290 Authentication Bypass by Spoofing

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.