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Fencer Intel
critical 9.1

CVE-2023-44981 json

Apache ZooKeeper: Authorization bypass in SASL Quorum Peer Authentication

published 3y ago modified 2mo ago also BIT-zookeeper-2023-44981 , EUVD-2023-2679 , GHSA-7286-pgfv-vxvh

cvss
9.1
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.2%
EPSS 2.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 82%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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 'eve@EXAMPLE.COM', 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.

Patch / fix

  • maven org.apache.zookeeper:zookeeper 3.7.2, 3.8.3, 3.9.1
  • bitnami zookeeper 3.7.2, 3.8.3
  • Apache Software Foundation Apache ZooKeeper 3.7.0, 3.9.1
  • zookeeper Debian 12 3.8.0-11+deb12u1
  • zookeeper Debian 14, Debian 13 3.9.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-44981

  • zookeeper Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 3.4.13-5ubuntu0.1
  • zookeeper Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 3.4.13-6ubuntu4.1
  • zookeeper Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 3.4.13-3ubuntu0.1~esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-44981

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Is CVE-2023-44981 in your dependencies? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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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-2023-44981 updated cvss 9.1

zookeeper: Authorization Bypass in Apache ZooKeeper

  • Red Hat BPM Suite 6 zookeeper Red Hat JBoss A-MQ 6 zookeeper Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6 zookeeper Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization 6 zookeeper Red Hat JBoss Fuse 6 zookeeper Red Hat JBoss Fuse Service Works 6 zookeeper
    +1 more products
    Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes zookeeper
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “According to Apache's document: Ensure the ensemble election/quorum communication is protected by a firewall as this will mitigate the issue.”
  • Red Hat AMQ Broker 7.10.6
    fixed: vendor fix “According to Apache's document: Ensure the ensemble election/quorum communication is protected by a firewall as this will mitigate the issue.” RHSA-2024:0903
  • Red Hat AMQ Broker 7
    fixed: vendor fix “According to Apache's document: Ensure the ensemble election/quorum communication is protected by a firewall as this will mitigate the issue.” RHSA-2024:2945
  • Red Hat AMQ Broker 7.11.6
    fixed: vendor fix “According to Apache's document: Ensure the ensemble election/quorum communication is protected by a firewall as this will mitigate the issue.” RHSA-2024:0705
  • Red Hat AMQ Streams 2.6.0
    fixed: vendor fix “According to Apache's document: Ensure the ensemble election/quorum communication is protected by a firewall as this will mitigate the issue.” RHSA-2023:7678
  • Red Hat Decision Manager 7 zookeeper Red Hat Fuse 7 zookeeper Red Hat Process Automation 7 zookeeper
    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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
total
Assessed
last yr.

Exploit prediction

2.22% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 82% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-15).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 9.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
GitHub 3.1 9.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
NVD 3.1 9.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
CNA 3.1 9.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
OSV 3.1 9.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven org.apache.zookeeper:zookeeper
<3.7.2
>=3.8.0, <3.8.3
>=3.9.0, <3.9.1
3.7.2
3.8.3
3.9.1
bitnami zookeeper
<3.7.2
>=3.8.0, <3.8.3
>=3.9.0, <=3.9.0
3.7.2
3.8.3

Affected products

  • Apache Software Foundation Apache ZooKeeper

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-639 Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key

References

Sources

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