CVE-2026-100252
Received
Received - Intake
Improper Authorization in Apache ZooKeeper
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-100252, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-11-04
Last updated on: 2026-11-04
Assigner: Apache Software Foundation
Description
Description
Improper Authorization vulnerability in Apache ZooKeeper.
When SASL authentication is enabled on the client port, the server's SASL callback handler grants every authorization identity (authzid) that a client requests, without checking it against the principal the client authenticated as. The server then tries to replace the requested identity with a canonical form of the authenticated principal, derived from the zookeeper.security.auth_to_local rules. If no rule applies to the principal, canonicalization fails and the error is only logged. The client-requested authzid then becomes the session's SASL identity for all ACL checks.
An authenticated client whose principal is not covered by the auth_to_local rules can therefore claim any SASL identity. With the default rules, this includes any Kerberos principal from a realm other than the server's default realm, such as a principal from a cross-realm trusted realm. The client then gets the permissions granted to that identity in sasl ACLs. If the requested identity matches a configured zookeeper.superUser, it gets superuser access to the whole data tree.
Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.8.8 or 3.9.7, which fixes the issue.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| Apache Software Foundation | Apache ZooKeeper | 3.9.0 |
| Apache Software Foundation | Apache ZooKeeper | 3.8.0 |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-863 | The product performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action, but it does not correctly perform the check. |
