CVE-2018-11770

Exp

From version 1.3.0 onward, Apache Spark's standalone master exposes a REST API for job submission, in addition to the submission mechanism used by spark-submit. In standalone, the config property 'spark.authenticate.secret' establishes a shared secret for authenticating requests to submit jobs via spark-submit. However, the REST API does not use this or any other authentication mechanism, and this is not adequately documented. In this case, a user would be able to run a driver program without authenticating, but not launch executors, using the REST API. This REST API is also used by Mesos, when set up to run in cluster mode (i.e., when also running MesosClusterDispatcher), for job submission. Future versions of Spark will improve documentation on these points, and prohibit setting 'spark.authenticate.secret' when running the REST APIs, to make this clear. Future versions will also disable the REST API by default in the standalone master by changing the default value of 'spark.master.rest.enabled' to 'false'.

Published: 2018-08-13 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-11770 is rated High Exploit Risk (61.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 65.94%, 99th percentile). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2018-11770

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-11770

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 89.00% 65.94% -23.06%
2 2026-04-05 89.57% 89.00% -0.57%
3 2026-02-23 — 89.57% —

Full EPSS history (31 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-11770

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.2 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.6 2.5 [email protected]
4.9 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 6.8 4.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-11770

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2018-11770

GHSA-w4r4-65mg-45x2 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: maven — org.apache.spark:spark-core_2.10 and org.apache.spark:spark-core_2.11 Improper Authentication vulnerability

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-11770

vendor priority summary link
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-11770
suse medium CVE-2018-11770 severity moderate: SUSE including 2 source package names (spark, spark-core), 3 product×package rows across 3 product lines (SUSE Manager Server 3.0, SUSE Manager Server 3.1, SUSE Manager Server 3.2): Known Not Affected 3. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-11770/

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-11770

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
apache spark >= 1.3.0, < 2.4.0 cpe:2.3:a:apache:spark:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-11770

cvelogic Threat Intelligence