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AccumuloApplication · Apache

CVE-2020-17533

HIGH · 8.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-12-29
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 1.10.0 or later.
See remediation →
87/100
Remediation priority · High
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
Apache Accumulo versions 1.5.0 through 1.10.0 and version 2.0.0 do not properly check the return value of some policy enforcement functions before permitting an authenticated user to perform certain administrative operations. Specifically, the return values of the 'canFlush' and 'canPerformSystemActions' security functions are not checked in some instances, therefore allowing an authenticated user with insufficient permissions to perform the following actions: flushing a table, shutting down Accumulo or an individual tablet server, and setting or removing system-wide Accumulo configuration properties.

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

Apache Accumulo versions 1.5.0-1.10.0 and 2.0.0 have an authorization bypass where the return values of security functions 'canFlush' and 'canPerformSystemActions' are not checked in certain code paths, allowing authenticated users with insufficient permissions to flush tables, shutdown Accumulo/tservers, and modify system-wide configuration properties.

MitigationUpgrade to Apache Accumulo 1.10.1, 1.11.0, 2.1.0, or later versions where return values of policy enforcement functions are properly checked.

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
AccumuloApplication
Affected:>= 1.5.0, <= 1.10.0= 2.0.0

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
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/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 checks

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

  1. Identify Accumulo installation and version
    Run 'accumulo version' or check the Accumulo JAR files in the installation directory for the version number
    Affected if The installed version is 1.5.0 through 1.10.0 inclusive, or exactly version 2.0.0
  2. Confirm authentication is enabled
    Check the accumulo-site.xml configuration file for the 'instance.security.authenticator' property; verify it is not set to 'org.apache.accumulo.server.security.authenticator.DisabledAuthenticator'
    Affected if Authentication is enabled (not disabled), meaning users must provide credentials to access Accumulo
  3. Verify user permissions configuration
    Use the Accumulo shell with an admin account and run 'user - list' or check the contents of the 'accumulo.users' table in Zookeeper to see registered users and their permissions
    Affected if There exist non-admin users with limited permissions who could attempt the unauthorized operations
  4. Check for exposure of administrative operations
    Verify that the Accumulo master and tserver processes are running and accessible on the network; check if the RPC ports (9999 for master, 9997 for tserver) are exposed
    Affected if The Accumulo services are network-accessible, allowing remote authenticated users to trigger the vulnerable code paths
  5. Test for the vulnerable flush operation
    Using a non-admin user account in the Accumulo shell, attempt to run 'flush' on a table the user does not have flush permission for; check if the operation succeeds when it should fail
    Affected if The flush operation completes without a permission error for a user lacking flush permission (indicates the bypass is present)

A user is affected if they are running Accumulo version 1.5.0-1.10.0 or 2.0.0, have authentication enabled, and have users with restricted permissions in their environment.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 1.10.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Apache Accumulo 1.10.1, 1.11.0, 2.1.0, or later versions where return values of policy enforcement functions are properly checked.

Fix this in Accumulo Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,120.

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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-2020-17533 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data