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CVE-2021-28131: Impala logs contain secrets

Impala sessions use a 16 byte secret to verify that the session is not being hijacked by another user. However, these secrets appear in the Impala logs, therefore Impala users with access to the logs can use another authenticated user's sessions with specially constructed requests. This means the attacker is able to execute statements for which they don't have the necessary privileges otherwise. Impala deployments with Apache Sentry or Apache Ranger authorization enabled may be vulnerable to privilege escalation if an authenticated attacker is able to hijack a session or query from another authenticated user with privileges not assigned to the attacker. Impala deployments with audit logging enabled may be vulnerable to incorrect audit logging as a user could undertake actions that were logged under the name of a different authenticated user. Constructing an attack requires a high degree of technical sophistication and access to the Impala system as an authenticated user. Mitigation: If an Impala deployment uses Apache Sentry, Apache Ranger or audit logging, then users should upgrade to a version of Impala with the fix for IMPALA-10600. The Impala 4.0 release includes this fix. This hides session secrets from the logs to eliminate the risk of any attack using this mechanism. In lieu of an upgrade, restricting access to logs that expose secrets will reduce the risk of an attack. Restricting access to the Impala deployment to trusted users will also reduce the risk of an attack. Log redaction techniques can be used to redact secrets from the logs.

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
Glexia's TakeAutomated analysis

Security readout for executives and security teams

Apache Impala could write session secrets to logs. An authenticated person who can read those logs might misuse another user’s session, potentially gaining permissions they should not have or causing actions to be audited under the wrong user. Likely exposure is Apache Impala deployments before the IMPALA-10600 fix, especially where Sentry, Ranger, or audit logging is enabled and log access is available to non-administrative authenticated users. Prioritize remediation for Impala environments with authorization controls or audit obligations. The attack has meaningful privilege and audit-integrity impact, but requires authenticated access and log visibility, so urgency depends on log-access scope. Mitigation focus: Upgrade to an Impala version containing the IMPALA-10600 fix; Impala 4.0 includes it.; Restrict access to Impala logs that may expose session secrets.; Limit Impala deployment access to trusted users where upgrade is delayed..

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Potential ATT&CK relevance

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CWE-288: Exact CWE lookup

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CVE-2021-28131 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Unknown
CVSS
Not scored
Known Exploited
No
Published
Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

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0CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
3Source links

CVSS and timeline data

No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
Apache Software FoundationApache ImpalaApache ImpalaListed
Weakness

CWE details

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CWE-288 · source CWE mapping

Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel

Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.