A possible security vulnerability has been identified in Apache Kafka Connect API. This requires access to a Kafka Connect worker, and the ability to create/modify connectors on it with an arbitrary Kafka client SASL JAAS config and a SASL-based security protocol, which has been possible on Kafka Connect clusters since Apache Kafka Connect 2.3.0. When configuring the connector via the Kafka Connect REST API, an authenticated operator can set the `sasl.jaas.config` property for any of the connector's Kafka clients to "com.sun.security.auth.module.JndiLoginModule", which can be done via the `producer.override.sasl.jaas.config`, `consumer.override.sasl.jaas.config`, or `admin.override.sasl.jaas.config` properties. This will allow the server to connect to the attacker's LDAP server and deserialize the LDAP response, which the attacker can use to execute java deserialization gadget chains on the Kafka connect server. Attacker can cause unrestricted deserialization of untrusted data (or) RCE vulnerability when there are gadgets in the classpath. Since Apache Kafka 3.0.0, users are allowed to specify these properties in connector configurations for Kafka Connect clusters running with out-of-the-box configurations. Before Apache Kafka 3.0.0, users may not specify these properties unless the Kafka Connect cluster has been reconfigured with a connector client override policy that permits them. 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 Connect 3.4.0. We advise the Kafka Connect users to validate connector configurations and only allow trusted JNDI configurations. Also examine connector dependencies for vulnerable versions and either upgrade their connectors, upgrading that specific dependency, or removing the connectors as options for remediation. Finally, in addition to leveraging the "org.apache.kafka.disallowed.login.modules" system property, Kafka Connect users can also implement their own connector client config override policy, which can be used to control which Kafka client properties can be overridden directly in a connector config and which cannot.

There are packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability referenced in the following CVE:

  - A possible security vulnerability has been identified in Apache Kafka Connect API. This requires access to
    a Kafka Connect worker, and the ability to create/modify connectors on it with an arbitrary Kafka client
    SASL JAAS config and a SASL-based security protocol, which has been possible on Kafka Connect clusters
    since Apache Kafka Connect 2.3.0. When configuring the connector via the Kafka Connect REST API, an
    authenticated operator can set the `sasl.jaas.config` property for any of the connector's Kafka clients to
    "com.sun.security.auth.module.JndiLoginModule", which can be done via the
    `producer.override.sasl.jaas.config`, `consumer.override.sasl.jaas.config`, or
    `admin.override.sasl.jaas.config` properties. This will allow the server to connect to the attacker's LDAP
    server and deserialize the LDAP response, which the attacker can use to execute java deserialization
    gadget chains on the Kafka connect server. Attacker can cause unrestricted deserialization of untrusted
    data (or) RCE vulnerability when there are gadgets in the classpath. Since Apache Kafka 3.0.0, users are
    allowed to specify these properties in connector configurations for Kafka Connect clusters running with
    out-of-the-box configurations. Before Apache Kafka 3.0.0, users may not specify these properties unless
    the Kafka Connect cluster has been reconfigured with a connector client override policy that permits them.
    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 Connect 3.4.0. We advise the
    Kafka Connect users to validate connector configurations and only allow trusted JNDI configurations. Also
    examine connector dependencies for vulnerable versions and either upgrade their connectors, upgrading that
    specific dependency, or removing the connectors as options for remediation. Finally, in addition to
    leveraging the "org.apache.kafka.disallowed.login.modules" system property, Kafka Connect users can also
    implement their own connector client config override policy, which can be used to control which Kafka
    client properties can be overridden directly in a connector config and which cannot. (CVE-2023-25194)

An update of the kafka package has been released.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
408735	SCA: security update for org.apache.kafka:connect (GHSA-26f8-x7cc-wqpc)	Tenable Cloud Security	SCA Checks	high
408735	SCA: security update for org.apache.kafka:connect (GHSA-26f8-x7cc-wqpc)	Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security	SCA Checks	high
203903	Photon OS 3.0: Kafka PHSA-2023-3.0-0538	Nessus	PhotonOS Local Security Checks	high
203566	Photon OS 5.0: Kafka PHSA-2023-5.0-0013	Nessus	PhotonOS Local Security Checks	high
203202	Photon OS 4.0: Kafka PHSA-2023-4.0-0336	Nessus	PhotonOS Local Security Checks	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2023-25194

high

Tenable Plugins

high

high

high

high

high