Detections
Analytics

SCA: security update for org.apache.kafka:connect (GHSA-26f8-x7cc-wqpc)

high Tenable Cloud Security Plugin ID 408735

Description

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)

See Also

https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-26f8-x7cc-wqpc

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 408735

Version: Revision 1.9

Type: Local

Family: SCA Checks

Published: 1/23/2025

Updated: 7/2/2026

Supported Sensors: Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.9

Percentile: 57.58

Vendor

Vendor Severity: High

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 9

Temporal Score: 6.7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2023-25194

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.8

Temporal Score: 7.7

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 2/7/2023

Vulnerability Publication Date: 2/7/2023

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2023-25194

cwe: CWE-502