CVE-2023-27589 | Minio vulnerable to denial of access by an admin privileged user for root credential

Exp

Minio is a Multi-Cloud Object Storage framework. Starting with RELEASE.2020-12-23T02-24-12Z and prior to RELEASE.2023-03-13T19-46-17Z, a user with `consoleAdmin` permissions can potentially create a user that matches the root credential `accessKey`. Once this user is created successfully, the root credential ceases to work appropriately. The issue is patched in RELEASE.2023-03-13T19-46-17Z. There are ways to work around this via adding higher privileges to the disabled root user via `mc admin policy set`.

Published: 2023-03-14 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-27589 is rated High Exploit Risk (60.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.32%). 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-2023-27589

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-27589

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 2026-03-22 0.09% 0.32% +0.23%
2 2025-11-21 0.25% 0.09% -0.16%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.25% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-27589

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H 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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.2 5.2 [email protected]
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H 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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.2 5.2 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-27589

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-27589

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
minio minio >= 2020-12-23t02-24-12z, < 2023-03-13t19-46-17z cpe:2.3:a:minio:minio:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-27589

cvelogic Threat Intelligence