CVE-2023-44981: Apache ZooKeeper: Authorization bypass in SASL Quorum Peer Authentication

[Andor Molnar <andor () apache org>]

Severity: critical

Affected versions:

- Apache ZooKeeper 3.9.0
- Apache ZooKeeper 3.8.0 through 3.8.2
- Apache ZooKeeper 3.7.0 through 3.7.1
- Apache ZooKeeper before 3.7.0

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.

Credit:

Damien Diederen <ddiederen () apache org> (reporter)

References:

https://zookeeper.apache.org/
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-44981