CVE-2012-1574 in Hadoop
Summary
by MITRE
The Kerberos/MapReduce security functionality in Apache Hadoop 0.20.203.0 through 0.20.205.0, 0.23.x before 0.23.2, and 1.0.x before 1.0.2, as used in Cloudera CDH CDH3u0 through CDH3u2, Cloudera hadoop-0.20-sbin before 0.20.2+923.197, and other products, allows remote authenticated users to impersonate arbitrary cluster user accounts via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/05/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2012-1574 represents a critical authentication bypass flaw within the Kerberos/MapReduce security implementation of Apache Hadoop. This issue affects multiple versions of the Hadoop ecosystem including the 0.20.203.0 through 0.20.205.0 series, 0.23.x versions prior to 0.23.2, and 1.0.x versions before 1.0.2, making it a widespread concern across various Hadoop deployments including those found in Cloudera CDH distributions. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation mechanisms within the security framework that governs user authentication and authorization within distributed computing environments. This flaw specifically impacts the Kerberos authentication system that Hadoop employs to secure cluster operations and user access to resources.
The technical nature of this vulnerability involves improper handling of authentication tokens and user identity verification within the MapReduce framework, allowing authenticated attackers to escalate their privileges and impersonate other user accounts within the cluster. Attackers who have gained initial access to the system can exploit this weakness to assume the identities of other legitimate users, potentially gaining access to sensitive data, executing unauthorized operations, or performing malicious activities under different user permissions. The unspecified vectors mentioned in the description indicate that the attack surface encompasses multiple potential entry points within the authentication flow, making the vulnerability particularly dangerous as it may be exploitable through various attack paths.
The operational impact of CVE-2012-1574 is severe for organizations relying on Hadoop clusters for data processing and storage, as it fundamentally undermines the security model designed to protect against unauthorized access. When exploited, this vulnerability can lead to complete compromise of cluster integrity, data breaches, and unauthorized data manipulation or exfiltration. The ability to impersonate arbitrary cluster user accounts means that attackers can potentially access data that would normally be restricted to specific user groups or roles, undermining the principle of least privilege that is fundamental to secure distributed computing environments. Organizations using affected Hadoop versions face significant risk of unauthorized access to their big data workloads and associated datasets.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability primarily involve upgrading to patched versions of Apache Hadoop where the Kerberos authentication mechanisms have been properly strengthened and validated. System administrators should immediately apply the security patches released by Apache Hadoop project and Cloudera for their respective affected versions. Additionally, organizations should implement network segmentation and access controls to limit the blast radius of potential exploitation. Monitoring for suspicious authentication patterns and user impersonation attempts should be enhanced through proper log analysis and security information event management systems. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-287 which addresses improper authentication issues, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1550.001 for use of valid credentials, highlighting the importance of proper credential validation and access control mechanisms in distributed computing environments.