An issue in Apache HBase affects the optional "Thrift 1" API server when running over HTTP. There is a race-condition which could lead to authenticated sessions being incorrectly applied to users, e.g. one authenticated user would be considered a different user or an unauthenticated user would be treated as an authenticated user. https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HBASE-20664 implements a fix for this issue. It has been fixed in versions: 1.2.6.1, 1.3.2.1, 1.4.5, 2.0.1.

In all previously released Apache HBase 2.x versions (2.0.0-2.0.4, 2.1.0-2.1.3), authorization was incorrectly applied to users of the HBase REST server. Requests sent to the HBase REST server were executed with the permissions of the REST server itself, not with the permissions of the end-user. This issue is only relevant when HBase is configured with Kerberos authentication, HBase authorization is enabled, and the REST server is configured with SPNEGO authentication. This issue does not extend beyond the HBase REST server.