CVE & CISA-KEV Catalog

CVE-2023-44981

CRITICALEPSS 75th pctl
9.1
CVSS v3
NVD

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.

How to fix

Remediation Available
zookeeperDebian
Fixed in:3.4.13-6+deb11u1CVE-2023-44981
Fixed in:3.8.0-11+deb12u1CVE-2023-44981
Fixed in:3.9.1-1CVE-2023-44981
Fixed in:3.9.1-1CVE-2023-44981
libzookeeper-javaUbuntu
Fixed in:3.4.5+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1~esm3USN-6559-1
Fixed in:3.4.8-1ubuntu0.1~esm2USN-6559-1
Fixed in:3.4.13-3ubuntu0.1~esm1USN-6559-1
Fixed in:3.4.13-5ubuntu0.1USN-6559-1
Fixed in:3.4.13-6ubuntu4.1USN-6559-1
Fixed in:3.8.0-10ubuntu0.1USN-6559-1
Fixed in:3.8.0-11ubuntu0.1USN-6559-1
zookeeperUbuntu
Fixed in:3.4.5+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1~esm3USN-6559-1
Fixed in:3.4.8-1ubuntu0.1~esm2USN-6559-1
Fixed in:3.4.13-3ubuntu0.1~esm1USN-6559-1
Fixed in:3.4.13-5ubuntu0.1USN-6559-1
Fixed in:3.4.13-6ubuntu4.1USN-6559-1
Fixed in:3.8.0-10ubuntu0.1USN-6559-1
Fixed in:3.8.0-11ubuntu0.1USN-6559-1

Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.

CVSS v3 Vector

Exploitability

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged

Impact

ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityNone

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Exploit Intelligence

1.71%probability of exploitation in 30 days
75thpercentile

Elevated risk: more likely to be exploited than 75% of all known CVEs.

References

Vendor Advisory1
Third-Party Advisory2
Mailing List1
Other references1
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This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2025-04-23.