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ImpalaApplication · Apache

CVE-2017-9792

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-10-04
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
71/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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 · unedited
In Apache Impala (incubating) before 2.10.0, a malicious user with "ALTER" permissions on an Impala table can access any other Kudu table data by altering the table properties to make it "external" and then changing the underlying table mapping to point to other Kudu tables. This violates and works around the authorization requirement that creating a Kudu external table via Impala requires an "ALL" privilege at the server scope. This privilege requirement for "CREATE" commands is enforced to precisely avoid this scenario where a malicious user can change the underlying Kudu table mapping. The fix is to enforce the same privilege requirement for "ALTER" commands that would make existing non-external Kudu tables external.

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 · high confidence

A user with ALTER permissions on an Impala table can bypass authorization by altering table properties to make it 'external' and redirecting the underlying Kudu table mapping to point to other Kudu tables. This circumvents the server-scope 'ALL' privilege requirement that's enforced during CREATE operations but was missing from ALTER commands.

MitigationApply Apache Impala 2.10.0 or later which enforces the same 'ALL' privilege requirement for ALTER commands that convert non-external Kudu tables to external tables.

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
ImpalaApplication
Affected:= 2.8.0= 2.9.0

CVSS 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
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed Impala version
    Run 'impala-shell' and execute 'SELECT VERSION();' or check the Impala daemon version via 'impalad --version'
    Affected if Version is 2.8.0 or 2.9.0
  2. Confirm Kudu integration is in use
    Execute 'SHOW TABLES;' in impala-shell and check for any tables with 'kudu.master_addresses' table property set, or run 'SHOW CREATE TABLE <tablename>;' on candidate tables
    Affected if Kudu tables exist in the Impala catalog
  3. Identify users with ALTER permission on Kudu tables
    Check Apache Sentry or Ranger authorization policies for any role/user granted ALTER on specific tables in the database containing Kudu tables
    Affected if Any user has table-level ALTER privilege (not server-level ALL privilege) on a Kudu table
  4. Detect external Kudu tables with redirected mappings
    Run 'SHOW TABLE EXTENDED;' for Kudu tables and inspect the 'is_external' flag and 'kudu.table_name' property - look for external tables where 'kudu.table_name' points to a different underlying Kudu table than the original
    Affected if External Kudu tables exist with redirected 'kudu.table_name' pointing to tables the user would not normally have access to create

You are affected if running Impala 2.8.0 or 2.9.0, have Kudu tables integrated, and users exist with table-level ALTER permission (rather than only server-scope ALL) who could have created external table redirections.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply Apache Impala 2.10.0 or later which enforces the same 'ALL' privilege requirement for ALTER commands that convert non-external Kudu tables to external tables.

Fix this in Impala Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing10.0 h
  • Review / QA6.0 h
34.0 hours of engineering $5,940
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-9792 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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