Apache Pulsar TLS certificate host validation

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Apache Pulsar and classified as critical. Affected is an unknown function of the component TLS Handler. Performing a manipulation results in certificate host validation. This vulnerability was named CVE-2022-33682. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Apache Pulsar (the affected version unknown). It has been classified as critical. This affects an unknown part of the component TLS Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a certificate host validation vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-297. The product communicates with a host that provides a certificate, but the product does not properly ensure that the certificate is actually associated with that host. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

TLS hostname verification cannot be enabled in the Pulsar Broker's Java Client, the Pulsar Broker's Java Admin Client, the Pulsar WebSocket Proxy's Java Client, and the Pulsar Proxy's Admin Client leaving intra-cluster connections and geo-replication connections vulnerable to man in the middle attacks, which could leak credentials, configuration data, message data, and any other data sent by these clients. The vulnerability is for both the pulsar+ssl protocol and HTTPS. An attacker can only take advantage of this vulnerability by taking control of a machine 'between' the client and the server. The attacker must then actively manipulate traffic to perform the attack by providing the client with a cryptographically valid certificate for an unrelated host. This issue affects Apache Pulsar Broker, Proxy, and WebSocket Proxy versions 2.7.0 to 2.7.4; 2.8.0 to 2.8.3; 2.9.0 to 2.9.2; 2.10.0; 2.6.4 and earlier.

The weakness was presented 09/23/2022. The advisory is shared at lists.apache.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2022-33682 since 06/15/2022. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 05/28/2025). MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1587.003 for this issue.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• Apache

Name

• Pulsar

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.apache.org/

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