CVE-2023-49938
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 · uneditedAn issue was discovered in SchedMD Slurm 22.05.x and 23.02.x. There is Incorrect Access Control: an attacker can modified their extended group list that is used with the sbcast subsystem, and open files with an unauthorized set of extended groups. The fixed versions are 22.05.11 and 23.02.7.
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 confidenceSchedMD Slurm versions 22.05.x and 23.02.x have an incorrect access control vulnerability in the sbcast subsystem that allows authenticated attackers to manipulate their extended group list, enabling unauthorized file access with extended group permissions they should not possess.
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>= 22.05.0, < 22.05.11>= 23.02.0, < 23.02.7CVSS 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
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the installed Slurm versionRun `slurmctld --version` or check the installed package version using your system package manager (e.g., `rpm -q slurm` or `dpkg -l | grep slurm`)Affected if The installed version is 22.05.0 through 22.05.10, or 23.02.0 through 23.02.6 (i.e., falls within the vulnerable ranges >=22.05.0,<22.05.11 or >=23.02.0,<23.02.7)
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Locate the sbcast binaryRun `which sbcast` or check if the sbcast binary exists in the Slurm sbin directory (commonly /usr/local/slurm/bin/ or /usr/sbin/) and is accessible to non-privileged usersAffected if The sbcast binary exists and is executable by authenticated users on the system
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Verify sbcast is available to regular usersAs a non-privileged test user, run `sbcast --help` or `which sbcast` to confirm regular authenticated users can invoke the sbcast commandAffected if Non-privileged users can execute sbcast, allowing them to interact with the vulnerable subsystem
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Check if sbcast feature is enabled in Slurm configurationInspect the slurm.conf file (typically in /etc/slurm/ or /usr/local/etc/) for any sbcast-related settings, and verify the slurmctld service is running with a vulnerable versionAffected if Slurm controller is running a vulnerable version and sbcast functionality is available to authenticated users in the environment
A user is affected if their Slurm installation runs version 22.05.0-22.05.10 or 23.02.0-23.02.6 AND the sbcast command is accessible to authenticated non-privileged users who could exploit the extended group list manipulation to gain unauthorized file 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.
dbcve · scoped22.05.1123.02.7
Upgrade Slurm to version 22.05.11 or 23.02.7 (or later) to remediate the incorrect access control in the sbcast subsystem.
Upgrade to Slurm 22.05.11 or later (for 22.05.x branch) OR upgrade to Slurm 23.02.7 or later (for 23.02.x branch)
- 1. Identify current Slurm version using 'slurmctld -V' or 'scontrol version'
- 2. Create a full backup of Slurm configuration files (slurm.conf, cgroup.conf, gres.conf, etc.)
- 3. Plan maintenance window as Slurm controller and compute nodes will need to be restarted
- 4. For Slurm 22.05.x versions: upgrade to version 22.05.11 or later
- 5. For Slurm 23.02.x versions: upgrade to version 23.02.7 or later
- 6. Update Slurm packages using system package manager (e.g., 'dnf update' or 'apt-get update && apt-get upgrade')
- 7. Restart slurmctld service on the controller node
- 8. Restart slurmd services on compute nodes as needed
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing8.0 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 $8,448.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-49938 — 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-2023-49938 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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