CVE-2024-23944 | Apache ZooKeeper: Information disclosure in persistent watcher handling

Information disclosure in persistent watchers handling in Apache ZooKeeper due to missing ACL check. It allows an attacker to monitor child znodes by attaching a persistent watcher (addWatch command) to a parent which the attacker has already access to. ZooKeeper server doesn't do ACL check when the persistent watcher is triggered and as a consequence, the full path of znodes that a watch event gets triggered upon is exposed to the owner of the watcher. It's important to note that only the path is exposed by this vulnerability, not the data of znode, but since znode path can contain sensitive information like user name or login ID, this issue is potentially critical. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.9.2, 3.8.4 which fixes the issue.

Published: 2024-03-15 Last update: 2025-07-03 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2024-23944 is rated Low Risk (23.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.03%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2024-23944

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 2025-11-21 0.15% 0.03% -0.13%
2 2025-11-18 0.04% 0.15% +0.11%
3 2025-04-23 0.04%

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2024-23944

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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: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:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
1.8 3.4 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2024-23944

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2024-23944

GHSA-r978-9m6m-6gm6 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: maven — Apache ZooKeeper vulnerable to information disclosure in persistent watchers handling

OS Trackers for CVE-2024-23944

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2024-23944 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (zookeeper), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-23944
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-23944
ubuntu medium CVE-2024-23944 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (zookeeper), 11 status rows across 11 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 7, ignored 2, needed 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2024-23944

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2024-23944

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
apache zookeeper >= 3.6.0, <= 3.7.2 cpe:2.3:a:apache:zookeeper:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache zookeeper >= 3.8.0, < 3.8.4 cpe:2.3:a:apache:zookeeper:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache zookeeper >= 3.9.0, < 3.9.2 cpe:2.3:a:apache:zookeeper:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2024-23944

cvelogic Threat Intelligence