CVE-2012-2230
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedCloudera Manager 3.7.x before 3.7.5 and Service and Configuration Manager 3.5, when Kerberos is not enabled, does not properly install taskcontroller.cfg, which allows remote authenticated users to impersonate arbitrary user accounts via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2012-1574.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceCloudera Manager versions 3.7.x before 3.7.5 and SCM 3.5 fail to properly install the taskcontroller.cfg configuration file when Kerberos authentication is disabled. This configuration gap allows any remote authenticated user to escalate privileges by impersonating arbitrary user accounts on the Hadoop cluster.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 3.7.0= 3.7.1= 3.7.2= 3.7.3= 3.7.4= 3.5CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- Single
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Cloudera Manager versionRun 'cloudera-manager --version' or check the Cloudera Manager web UI (Help > About) to determine the exact version installedAffected if Version is 3.7.0, 3.7.1, 3.7.2, 3.7.3, or 3.7.4, or SCM version 3.5 is in use
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Check if Kerberos authentication is enabledIn Cloudera Manager web UI, go to Administration > Settings > Security and verify the 'Kerberos Security Realm' setting, or check for the presence of krb5.conf on cluster nodesAffected if Kerberos is disabled or not configured (the vulnerability applies when Kerberos is disabled)
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Locate and inspect taskcontroller.cfgSearch for taskcontroller.cfg in typical locations such as /etc/hadoop/conf/ or /etc/mapred/conf/ on TaskTracker/NodeManager nodes; run 'find /etc -name taskcontroller.cfg 2>/dev/null'Affected if taskcontroller.cfg is missing, empty, or lacks proper ownership/permissions configuration (typically should have strict ownership by root with limited read access)
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Verify taskcontroller.cfg contents for required directivesIf file exists, inspect it for required directives like 'min.user.id' and ensure they are set to restrictive values (e.g., min.user.id=1000)Affected if Required security directives are missing or set to permissive values (e.g., min.user.id=0)
You are affected if you run Cloudera Manager 3.7.x (3.7.0-3.7.4) or SCM 3.5, have Kerberos disabled, and the taskcontroller.cfg file is missing or misconfigured.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade to Cloudera Manager 3.7.5 or later. Additionally, enable and properly configure Kerberos authentication, which ensures correct taskcontroller.cfg installation and prevents user impersonation attacks.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-2230 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2012-2230 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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