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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2025-27819 json

Apache Kafka: Possible RCE/Denial of service attack via SASL JAAS JndiLoginModule configuration

published last yr. modified 2mo ago also BIT-kafka-2025-27819 , EUVD-2025-17641 , GHSA-mcwh-c9pg-xw43

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.1%
EPSS 1.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 66%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In CVE-2023-25194, we announced the RCE/Denial of service attack via SASL JAAS JndiLoginModule configuration in Kafka Connect API. But not only Kafka Connect API is vulnerable to this attack, the Apache Kafka brokers also have this vulnerability. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker needs to be able to connect to the Kafka cluster and have the AlterConfigs permission on the cluster resource.

Since Apache Kafka 3.4.0, we have added a system property ("-Dorg.apache.kafka.disallowed.login.modules") to disable the problematic login modules usage in SASL JAAS configuration. Also by default "com.sun.security.auth.module.JndiLoginModule" is disabled in Apache Kafka 3.4.0, and "com.sun.security.auth.module.JndiLoginModule,com.sun.security.auth.module.LdapLoginModule" is disabled by default in in Apache Kafka 3.9.1/4.0.0

Patch / fix

  • maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.12 3.4.0
  • maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.13 3.4.0
  • bitnami kafka 3.4.1
  • apache kafka 3.4.0
  • org.apache.kafka kafka 3.4.0

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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-2025-27819 updated cvss 8.8

org.apache.kafka: Kafka JNDI Login Module RCE Vulnerability

  • Red Hat Streams for Apache Kafka 3.1.0
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this flaw, disable the problematic login module's usage in the SASL JAAS configuration using the system property, "-Dorg.apache.kafka.disallowed.login.modules".” RHSA-2025:23417
  • Red Hat A-MQ Clients 2 kafka-clients Red Hat Logging Subsystem for Red Hat OpenShift kafka_2.11, kafka-clients Red Hat OpenShift Serverless openshift-serverless-1/kn-ekb-receiver-rhel8, openshift-serverless-1/kn-ekb-dispatcher-rhel8, openshift-serverless-1/kn-ekb-post-install-rhel8, openshift-serverless-1/kn-ekb-webhook-kafka-rhel8, openshift-serverless-1/kn-ekb-kafka-controller-rhel8, openshift-serverless-1/kn-eventing-istio-controller-rhel8 Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4 for Quarkus 3 quarkus-cxf-bom, quarkus-camel-bom Red Hat build of Apache Camel for Spring Boot 4 kafka_2.13, kafka-raft, connect-api, connect-file, connect-json, kafka-server, +11 more Red Hat build of Apicurio Registry 2 connect-api, connect-json, kafka-clients, kafka-streams
    +15 more products
    Red Hat build of Apicurio Registry 3 connect-api, connect-json, kafka-clients Red Hat build of Debezium 2 kafka_2.13, kafka-raft, connect-api, connect-file, connect-json, kafka-server, +9 more Red Hat build of Debezium 3 kafka_2.13, kafka-raft, connect-api, connect-file, connect-json, kafka-server, +11 more Red Hat build of Quarkus quarkus-bom Red Hat Data Grid 8 kafka-clients Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 log4j, log4j-jcl, log4j-web, log4j-slf4j Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 log4j, log4j-jcl, log4j-slf4j Red Hat Fuse 7 kafka, connect, kafka_2.12, kafka_2.13, kafka-raft, connect-api, +20 more Red Hat Integration Camel K 1 kafka_2.12, connect-api, kafka-tools, connect-file, connect-json, kafka-clients, +4 more Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7 kafka, connect, trogdor, generator, kafka_2.12, kafka_2.13, +39 more Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 8 kafka, connect, trogdor, generator, kafka_2.12, kafka_2.13, +50 more Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform Expansion Pack kafka, connect, trogdor, generator, kafka_2.12, kafka_2.13, +50 more Red Hat Process Automation 7 kafka-clients Red Hat streams for Apache Kafka kafka, connect, trogdor, generator, kafka_2.13, kafka-raft, +45 more Red Hat streams for Apache Kafka 2 kafka, connect, trogdor, generator, kafka_2.13, kafka-raft, +53 more
    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
partial
Assessed
last yr.

Exploit prediction

1.11% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 66% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
GitHub 3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
OSV 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.10
all versions
 no fix listed
maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.11
all versions
 no fix listed
maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.12
<3.4.0
3.4.0
maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.13
<3.4.0
3.4.0
maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.8.0
all versions
 no fix listed
maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.8.2
all versions
 no fix listed
maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.9.1
all versions
 no fix listed
maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.9.2
all versions
 no fix listed
bitnami kafka
>=2.0.0, <3.4.1
3.4.1

Affected products

  • Apache Software Foundation Apache Kafka

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data

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.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.