CVE-2018-17860
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 CDH has Insecure Permissions because ALL cannot be revoked.This affects 5.x through 5.15.1 and 6.x through 6.0.1.
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 CDH contains an insecure permissions vulnerability where the 'ALL' permission grant cannot be revoked, allowing users who have been granted ALL permissions to retain full access to resources even after attempts to restrict those permissions. This affects versions 5.x through 5.15.1 and 6.x through 6.0.1.
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>= 5.0.0, <= 5.14.0= 5.15.0= 5.15.1= 6.0.0= 6.0.1CVSS 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
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/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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Identify installed Cloudera CDH versionRun 'cloudera-manager --version' or check the Cloudera Manager admin console under Hosts > All Hosts to view the CDH version parcelAffected if The installed version is 5.0.0 through 5.14.0, or exactly 5.15.0, 5.15.1, 6.0.0, or 6.0.1
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Locate users granted ALL permissionsIn Cloudera Manager, navigate to Administration > Users and Groups > Users, or use the 'klist' or 'ldapsearch' commands to enumerate principals with the 'ALL' permission grant on any resourceAffected if Any user account has been explicitly granted the ALL permission on HDFS, Hive, HBase, or other cluster resources
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Verify if ALL permission revocation was attemptedReview Cloudera Manager audit logs under Diagnostics > Audits for permission change events, specifically look for 'revoke' or 'modify permission' operations targeting previously granted ALL permissionsAffected if There are audit records showing attempted revocation of ALL permissions that may have failed or been ineffective
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Confirm users retain access after revocationAs the user who had ALL permissions revoked, attempt to perform actions on resources (read, write, execute) that should have been restricted, or check current ACLs via 'hdfs dfs -getfacl' or Impala/Hive SHOW GRANT commandsAffected if Users still have full access to resources despite permission revocation attempts
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Check authorization provider configurationIn Cloudera Manager, go to Clusters > [Cluster Name] > Configuration and verify the authorization provider setting (Sentry, Ranger, or native ACLs), then review the permission policy files for ANY grants that may override revoke actionsAffected if The authorization provider is configured and contains persistent ALL permission grants that cannot be modified
A system is affected if it runs a vulnerable CDH version (5.x-5.15.1 or 6.x-6.0.1) and has users who were granted ALL permissions that were subsequently attempted to be revoked but who still retain full access
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 a patched Cloudera CDH version beyond 5.15.1 or 6.0.1, or apply Cloudera-provided patches that address the permission revocation issue.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing12.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $11,200.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-17860 — 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-2018-17860 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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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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