CVE-2023-50976 in Redpanda
Summary
by MITRE • 12/18/2023
Redpanda before 23.1.21 and 23.2.x before 23.2.18 has missing authorization checks in the Transactions API.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/12/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-50976 affects Redpanda versions prior to 23.1.21 and 23.2.x versions before 23.2.18, specifically targeting the Transactions API implementation. This represents a critical authorization flaw that undermines the security model of the distributed streaming platform. The issue stems from insufficient validation mechanisms within the transaction management component, allowing unauthorized entities to perform operations that should be restricted to authenticated and authorized users. The Transactions API in Redpanda is designed to provide atomic operations across multiple topics and partitions, making it a critical component for maintaining data consistency in distributed systems. When authorization checks are missing or improperly implemented, it creates a pathway for malicious actors to manipulate transactional state and potentially compromise the integrity of the entire streaming pipeline.
The technical flaw manifests as a failure in the access control enforcement mechanism within the transaction coordinator service. In properly secured systems, the Transactions API should validate user credentials and permissions before allowing operations such as beginning, committing, or aborting transactions. However, in vulnerable versions, these checks are either absent or bypassed, enabling any client that can establish a connection to the Redpanda cluster to execute transactional operations. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-284, which describes improper access control issues in software systems. The flaw operates at the application layer and can be exploited through network-based attacks where an adversary gains access to the cluster's transaction endpoint, potentially leading to data corruption or unauthorized modifications to transactional state information.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access to encompass potential data integrity violations and service disruption. Attackers could manipulate transactional boundaries, causing data inconsistencies across topics and partitions managed by the cluster. This could result in duplicate messages, missing messages, or corrupted transactional state that affects downstream consumers and applications relying on the consistency guarantees provided by Redpanda's transactional API. The vulnerability particularly affects systems where transactional semantics are critical for maintaining data accuracy, such as financial applications, real-time analytics, or any scenario where atomic operations across multiple data streams are required. Organizations using Redpanda in production environments may face regulatory compliance issues if transactional integrity is compromised, as many industries require strict controls over data modification operations.
Organizations should immediately upgrade to Redpanda versions 23.1.21 or 23.2.18 and later to remediate this vulnerability. The upgrade process should be carefully planned to minimize service disruption while ensuring all nodes in the cluster are updated to the patched version. Additional mitigation strategies include implementing network-level access controls to restrict access to the transaction endpoints, enabling strict authentication mechanisms, and monitoring for unauthorized transactional operations. Security teams should also review existing access control policies and ensure that proper role-based access controls are implemented for transactional operations. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving privilege escalation and unauthorized access to system resources, with potential for lateral movement within the cluster if attackers can leverage the transactional capabilities to manipulate data flows. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to verify that access controls are properly enforced and that no other similar authorization gaps exist within the Redpanda deployment.