CVE-2023-44981 | Apache ZooKeeper: Authorization bypass in SASL Quorum Peer Authentication

Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key vulnerability in Apache ZooKeeper. If SASL Quorum Peer authentication is enabled in ZooKeeper (quorum.auth.enableSasl=true), the authorization is done by verifying that the instance part in SASL authentication ID is listed in zoo.cfg server list. The instance part in SASL auth ID is optional and if it's missing, like '[email protected]', the authorization check will be skipped. As a result an arbitrary endpoint could join the cluster and begin propagating counterfeit changes to the leader, essentially giving it complete read-write access to the data tree. Quorum Peer authentication is not enabled by default. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.9.1, 3.8.3, 3.7.2, which fixes the issue. Alternately ensure the ensemble election/quorum communication is protected by a firewall as this will mitigate the issue. See the documentation for more details on correct cluster administration.

Published: 2023-10-11 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-44981 is rated Moderate Risk (64.1/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.71%). EPSS rose +1.69% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-44981

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 0.03% 1.71% +1.69%
2 2025-11-21 0.44% 0.03% -0.41%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.44% —

Full EPSS history (18 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-44981

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.1 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 5.2 [email protected]
9.1 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 5.2 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-44981

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-44981

GHSA-7286-pgfv-vxvh · Severity: critical · Ecosystem: maven — Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key vulnerability in Apache ZooKeeper

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-44981

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-44981 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (zookeeper), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-44981
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-44981
suse medium CVE-2023-44981 severity moderate: SUSE including 2 source package names (zookeeper, zookeeper-server), 10 product×package rows across 5 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE OpenStack Cloud 8, … (5 product lines)): Will Not Fix 10. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-44981/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-44981 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (zookeeper), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 6, not-affected 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-44981

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-44981

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
apache zookeeper < 3.7.2 cpe:2.3:a:apache:zookeeper:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache zookeeper >= 3.8.0, < 3.8.3 cpe:2.3:a:apache:zookeeper:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache zookeeper 3.9.0 cpe:2.3:a:apache:zookeeper:3.9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 12.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:12.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-44981

cvelogic Threat Intelligence