CVE-2026-92778 in CMAK
Summary
by MITRE • 09/16/2026
CMAK through 3.0.0.6 fails to apply the scheduled leader election feature toggle to HTML form routes, allowing attackers to bypass the feature gate. Attackers can access the form endpoints to start and stop the recurring election scheduler, disrupting leadership across managed Kafka clusters.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/16/2026
The vulnerability identified in CMAK versions up to 3.0.0.6 represents a critical authorization control failure within the application's web interface layer. Specifically, the scheduled leader election feature includes a configuration toggle designed to restrict access to its functionality based on administrative privileges or specific operational states. However, this security gate is not consistently enforced across all entry points of the application. While backend API endpoints may correctly check for the enabled state of the feature before processing requests, the HTML form routes responsible for rendering the user interface and handling initial submission data fail to apply the same validation logic. This inconsistency creates a significant gap in the defense-in-depth strategy employed by the system, allowing unauthenticated or unauthorized users who can reach the web application to interact with sensitive administrative functions that should otherwise be inaccessible when the feature is disabled.
From a technical perspective, this flaw constitutes an improper access control vulnerability where the enforcement mechanism relies on client-side visibility rather than server-side authorization checks for all request types. The attacker exploits this by directly interacting with the HTML form endpoints or manipulating HTTP requests associated with these routes to trigger the leader election scheduler start and stop commands. Because the backend does not verify whether the scheduled leader election feature is actually enabled in the current configuration before executing the command, it processes the instruction regardless of the intended security policy. This allows an attacker to manipulate the leadership state of managed Apache Kafka clusters without proper authorization or operational justification. The ability to arbitrarily start and stop recurring elections disrupts the stable operation of the cluster, as frequent leader changes can lead to increased latency, temporary unavailability of topics, and potential data inconsistency during the election process.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe for environments relying on CMAK for Kafka management. By disrupting leadership across managed clusters, an attacker can cause a denial of service condition that affects availability and reliability. In production environments, where consistent leader distribution is crucial for performance and fault tolerance, such manipulation can degrade overall system throughput and stability. Furthermore, if the scheduled election feature was disabled specifically to prevent accidental or malicious changes during maintenance windows or stable periods, bypassing this restriction undermines operational governance controls. This could lead to cascading failures in downstream systems that depend on consistent Kafka connectivity and data streaming integrity.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 Improper Access Control, as the application fails to restrict access to resources based on user roles or configuration states. It also maps to MITRE ATT&CK technique T1078 Valid Accounts if exploited by a compromised low-privilege account, or more broadly to unauthorized privilege escalation through misconfigured security controls. To mitigate this risk, administrators should immediately upgrade CMAK to version 3.0.0.7 or later where the access control logic has been corrected for all routes including HTML forms. In the interim, if upgrading is not feasible, network-level restrictions such as firewall rules or reverse proxy configurations can be implemented to block direct access to these specific endpoints from untrusted networks. Additionally, enabling comprehensive audit logging and monitoring for leader election events can help detect any unauthorized attempts to manipulate cluster leadership states before they cause significant operational disruption.