Security Resilience

CVE-2023-30428

Access Control in Apache Pulsar 2.9.0 – 2.9.5

Published
12 July 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 8.2
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0082 56th percentile
Risk Priority 58 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-30428 is a high-severity Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) vulnerability in Apache Pulsar. Its CVSS base score is 8.2 (High).

Operationally, ranked in the top 44% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Incorrect Authorization vulnerability in Apache Software Foundation Apache Pulsar Broker's Rest Producer allows authenticated user with a custom HTTP header to produce a message to any topic using the broker's admin role. This issue affects Apache Pulsar Brokers: from 2.9.0…

more

through 2.9.5, from 2.10.0 before 2.10.4, 2.11.0. The vulnerability is exploitable when an attacker can connect directly to the Pulsar Broker. If an attacker is connecting through the Pulsar Proxy, there is no known way to exploit this authorization vulnerability. There are two known risks for affected users. First, an attacker could produce garbage messages to any topic in the cluster. Second, an attacker could produce messages to the topic level policies topic for other tenants and influence topic settings that could lead to exfiltration and/or deletion of messages for other tenants. 2.8 Pulsar Broker users and earlier are unaffected. 2.9 Pulsar Broker users should upgrade to one of the patched versions. 2.10 Pulsar Broker users should upgrade to at least 2.10.4. 2.11 Pulsar Broker users should upgrade to at least 2.11.1. 3.0 Pulsar Broker users are unaffected.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-37579Same product: Apache Pulsar
CVE-2024-29834Same product: Apache Pulsar
CVE-2024-28098Same product: Apache Pulsar
CVE-2023-30429Same product: Apache Pulsar
CVE-2023-51437Same product: Apache Pulsar
CVE-2025-30677Same product: Apache Pulsar
CVE-2021-22160Same product: Apache Pulsar
CVE-2023-31007Same product: Apache Pulsar
CVE-2024-27317Same product: Apache Pulsar
CVE-2023-37544Same product: Apache Pulsar

Affected Assets

apache
pulsar
2.11.0 · 2.9.0 — 2.9.5 · 2.10.0 — 2.10.4

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-863

Periodic review and update of procedures reduces incorrect authorization implementations over time.

addresses: CWE-863

Supervision identifies cases where authorization logic incorrectly permits unauthorized actions.

addresses: CWE-863

Defining permitted attribute values and auditing modifications reduces the chance of incorrect authorization outcomes due to tampered or missing labels.

addresses: CWE-863

The authorization process and usage restrictions help prevent incorrect authorization for remote access types.

addresses: CWE-863

Establishing configuration and connection requirements helps ensure correct rather than incorrect authorization for wireless access.

addresses: CWE-863

Establishing connection authorization processes for mobile devices helps ensure authorization decisions are correctly implemented rather than incorrect.

addresses: CWE-863

Monitoring account use, notifying on changes, and reviewing accounts for compliance corrects incorrect authorization assignments.

addresses: CWE-863

Ensures authorization decisions for external system use are correctly implemented and enforced.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

blocks

Requiring consistency between access rights and classification plus formal approval steps ensures that the authorization logic correctly distinguishes between entities that should and should not be granted access.

blocks

A.5.18's provisioning, revocation, review and adjustment of access rights (incl. before role changes/termination, with segregation and owner approval) directly stops incorrect authorization decisions from being exploitable in the vast majority of cases; the bounded remainder is incorrectness inside the authorization logic itself (e.g. flawed conditional or missing check) rather than rights that were wrongly granted.

blocks

A.8.3 directly mandates restricting access to information per policies via configuration, identity/group controls, isolation, and dynamic techniques that enforce correct authorization decisions, addressing most but not all slices of CWE-863 (e.g., remainder in non-access-decision authorization errors like timing or environmental factors).

Hardening callouts derived

DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.

  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-863, a class-level weakness, and none of its children carries one either.

References