Openshift Container PlatformApplication · Redhat
CVE-2018-1085
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 · uneditedopenshift-ansible before versions 3.9.23, 3.7.46 deploys a misconfigured etcd file that causes the SSL client certificate authentication to be disabled. Quotations around the values of ETCD_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH and ETCD_PEER_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH in etcd.conf result in etcd being configured to allow remote users to connect without any authentication if they can access the etcd server bound to the network on the master nodes. An attacker could use this flaw to read and modify all the data about the Openshift cluster in the etcd datastore, potentially adding another compute node, or bringing down the entire cluster.
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 confidenceThe openshift-ansible deployment scripts generate an etcd.conf file with quoted string values ('true') for ETCD_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH and ETCD_PEER_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH instead of proper boolean values. This causes etcd to ignore the certificate authentication setting entirely, leaving the etcd datastore accessible without any authentication on the master node network.
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
Openshift Container PlatformApplication
< 3.9.31CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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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Locate the etcd.conf configuration fileOn the master node, look for /etc/etcd/etcd.conf (default location for OCP deployments) or search with 'find / -name etcd.conf 2>/dev/null'Affected if The file exists and was generated by openshift-ansible deployment scripts prior to version 3.9.31 or 3.7.46
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Inspect ETCD_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH valueOpen etcd.conf and search for the line 'ETCD_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH=' and note whether the value is quoted (like 'true') or unquoted (like true)Affected if The value appears as ETCD_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH='true' (quoted string) instead of ETCD_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH=true (boolean)
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Inspect ETCD_PEER_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH valueOpen etcd.conf and search for the line 'ETCD_PEER_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH=' and note whether the value is quoted or unquotedAffected if The value appears as ETCD_PEER_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH='true' (quoted string) instead of ETCD_PEER_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH=true (boolean)
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Check openshift-ansible deployment versionCheck the version of openshift-ansible that was used for the original deployment, typically found in the deployment inventory or by checking the installed package version with 'rpm -q openshift-ansible' or 'git rev-parse' in the deployment repositoryAffected if The installed version is less than 3.9.31 (for OCP 3.9) or less than 3.7.46 (for OCP 3.7)
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Verify if etcd is accepting unauthenticated connectionsFrom a master node, attempt to connect to the local etcd instance (port 2379) without providing a client certificate, for example using curl -k https://localhost:2379/v2/keys/ or etcdctl --endpoint=https://127.0.0.1:2379 get /Affected if The connection succeeds and returns data without requiring client certificate authentication
You are affected if etcd.conf contains quoted 'true' values for ETCD_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH or ETCD_PEER_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH, or if etcd accepts unauthenticated connections on the master node network.
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.
dbcve · scoped3.9.31
Upgrade openshift-ansible to version 3.9.23 or 3.7.46 or later to deploy the corrected unquoted configuration, then regenerate etcd certificates and restart the etcd service to enforce client certificate authentication.
OpenShift Container Platform 3.9.31 or later; openshift-ansible 3.9.23/3.7.46 or later
- 1. Back up the current etcd data and configuration before making any changes
- 2. Upgrade openshift-ansible to version 3.9.23 or later (for 3.9.x branches) or 3.7.46 or later (for 3.7.x branches)
- 3. Regenerate the etcd.conf configuration by re-running the relevant openshift-ansible playbooks (e.g., openshift_etcd_facts, etc.)
- 4. Verify that the ETCD_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH and ETCD_PEER_CLIENT_CERT_AUTH values in /etc/etcd/etcd.conf are set to 'true' without quotation marks
- 5. Restart the etcd service on all master nodes to apply the corrected configuration
- 6. Verify that client certificate authentication is now required for etcd connections
- 7. Test cluster functionality to ensure the fix does not disrupt normal operations
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Openshift Container Platform
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,560.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-1085 — 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-2018-1085 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
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