CVE-2023-44981 - CVE House
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Status published Unknown CVE-2023-44981

Apache ZooKeeper: Authorization bypass in SASL Quorum Peer Authentication

Vulnerability 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 '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.

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

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Credits & Attribution

The following person or organization is credited with identifying this vulnerability, as recorded in the NVD database:

  • Damien Diederen <ddiederen@apache.org>

Affected Vendor

Apache Software Foundation

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Affected Software

Apache ZooKeeper
Vulnerable Versions:
3.9.0, 3.8.0, 3.7.0, 0

Timeline

Official Publish: October 11th, 2023
Last Modified: April 23rd, 2025
Added to House: July 22nd, 2026

CVSS Vectors

No vector data available

Weaknesses (CWE)