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ScylladbApplication

CVE-2023-33972

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-09-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 5.2.8 or later.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
Scylladb is a NoSQL data store using the seastar framework, compatible with Apache Cassandra. Authenticated users who are authorized to create tables in a keyspace can escalate their privileges to access a table in the same keyspace, even if they don't have permissions for that table. This issue has not yet been patched. A workaround to address this issue is to disable CREATE privileges on a keyspace, and create new tables on behalf of other users.

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 confidence

Scylladb contains a privilege escalation vulnerability where authenticated users with CREATE table permissions on a keyspace can access tables within that keyspace without proper authorization. The authorization logic fails to properly enforce table-level permissions when a user has keyspace-level CREATE privileges, allowing unintended access to sensitive data.

MitigationDisable CREATE privileges on keyspaces and implement table creation through a privileged service account or administrator to prevent users from leveraging keyspace permissions to access unauthorized 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
ScylladbApplication
Affected:<= 5.2.8

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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 checks

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

  1. Identify ScyllaDB version
    Run `scylla --version` or check the installed package version using your package manager (e.g., `rpm -q scylladb` or `dpkg -l scylladb`)
    Affected if The installed version is 5.2.8 or lower (any version <= 5.2.8)
  2. List keyspace-level permissions
    Connect to ScyllaDB (cqlsh) and run `LIST ALL PERMISSIONS OF ALL` or query `system_auth.role_permissions` table to see granted permissions
    Affected if Any non-admin user has CREATE permission on a keyspace (not just on specific tables)
  3. Verify role-based access controls
    Query `system_auth.roles` table to identify user roles, then check `system_auth.role_members` to determine which users are assigned to roles with elevated permissions
    Affected if Users are assigned roles that grant keyspace-level CREATE privileges rather than table-specific permissions
  4. Test table access enforcement
    As a user with keyspace-level CREATE permission (but no explicit table permissions), attempt to SELECT from a table in that keyspace that was created by another user
    Affected if The user can read data from tables they did not create, indicating the authorization flaw is present

You are affected if running ScyllaDB version 5.2.8 or lower AND you have users with keyspace-level CREATE permissions that can access tables they did not create.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 5.2.8
Interim mitigation

Disable CREATE privileges on keyspaces and implement table creation through a privileged service account or administrator to prevent users from leveraging keyspace permissions to access unauthorized tables.

Recommended fix High confidence
  1. Review all keyspaces and identify which users have CREATE privileges on each keyspace using DESCRIBE AUTHORYZATION or equivalent queries
  2. For each keyspace, revoke CREATE permission from users who should not have it, using: REVOKE CREATE ON KEYSPACE <keyspace> FROM <user>
  3. Implement the workaround: instead of allowing users to create tables directly, require them to submit table creation requests to administrators
  4. Administrators should then create tables on behalf of users using their own elevated privileges
  5. Alternatively, create a dedicated role for table creation and restrict assignment of this role to trusted administrators only
  6. Audit existing table permissions after applying changes to ensure no unauthorized access exists

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Scylladb Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
30.0 hours of engineering $5,280
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $8,448.

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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-2023-33972 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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