Deserialization of Untrusted Data in Apache Kafka - CVE-2023-25194

Detailed vulnerability description

The vulnerability allows a remote user to execute arbitrary code on the target system.

The vulnerability exists due to Apache Kafka Connect performs deserialization of data retrieved from the configured LDAP server in "com.sun.security.auth.module.JndiLoginModule". A remote user ability to create/modify connectors on the server with an arbitrary Kafka client SASL JAAS config can configure the server to connect to a malicious LDAP server and execute arbitrary Java code on the system.

How to mitigate CVE-2023-25194

Install updates from vendor's website, which disables the problematic login modules usage in SASL JAAS configuration.

It is also recommended to validate connector configurations and only allow trusted JNDI configurations.

Sources

• https://kafka.apache.org/cve-list
• https://lists.apache.org/thread/vy1c7fqcdqvq5grcqp6q5jyyb302khyz