CVE-2018-11770: Medium severity apache spark vulnerability
From version 1.3.0 onward, Apache Spark's standalone master exposes a REST API for job submission, in addition to the submission mechanism used by spark-submit. In standalone, the config property 'spark.authenticate.secret' establishes a shared secret for authenticating requests to submit jobs via spark-submit. However, the REST API does not use this or any other authentication mechanism, and this is not adequately documented. In this case, a user would be able to run a driver program without authenticating, but not launch executors, using the REST API. This REST API is also used by Mesos, when set up to run in cluster mode (i.e., when also running MesosClusterDispatcher), for job submission. Future versions of Spark will improve documentation on these points, and prohibit setting 'spark.authenticate.secret' when running the REST APIs, to make this clear. Future 2.4.x versions will also disable the REST API by default in the standalone master by changing the default value of 'spark.master.rest.enabled' to 'false'.
Other sources
From version 1.3.0 onward, Apache Spark's standalone master exposes a REST API for job submission, in addition to the submission mechanism used by spark-submit. In standalone, the config property 'spark.authenticate.secret' establishes a shared secret for authenticating requests to submit jobs via spark-submit. However, the REST API does not use this or any other authentication mechanism, and this is not adequately documented. In this case, a user would be able to run a driver program without authenticating, but not launch executors, using the REST API. This REST API is also used by Mesos, when set up to run in cluster mode (i.e., when also running MesosClusterDispatcher), for job submission. Future versions of Spark will improve documentation on these points, and prohibit setting 'spark.authenticate.secret' when running the REST APIs, to make this clear. Future versions will also disable the REST API by default in the standalone master by changing the default value of 'spark.master.rest.enabled' to 'false'.
Affected Software
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2018-11770?
CVE-2018-11770 is a vulnerability in Apache Spark's standalone master that exposes a REST API for job submission, allowing unauthorized access to submit jobs.
How does CVE-2018-11770 affect Apache Spark?
CVE-2018-11770 affects Apache Spark from version 1.3.0 onward, where the standalone master exposes a REST API for job submission.
What is the severity of CVE-2018-11770?
CVE-2018-11770 has a severity rating of medium with a severity value of 4.2.
What is the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) ID of CVE-2018-11770?
The CWE ID of CVE-2018-11770 is CWE-287.
How can I mitigate CVE-2018-11770?
To mitigate CVE-2018-11770, ensure that the 'spark.authenticate.secret' configuration property is properly set to establish a shared secret for authenticating requests to submit jobs via the REST API.