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Hard-coded CredentialsWeakness · CWE-798

CVE-2026-47846

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-06-18
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
Bitnami Cassandra container images are affected by a retained default superuser vulnerability. When a custom administrator account is configured via the CASSANDRA_USER environment variable, the container initialization script creates the new superuser account but fails to drop the built-in cassandra account in certain scenarios. This leaves the default cassandra:cassandra superuser active as an unintended access path. Affected versions — Container image: 4.0.x prior to 4.0.20-photon-5-r7; 4.1.x prior to 4.1.11-photon-5-r7; 5.0.x prior to 5.0.8-photon-5-r4 / 5.0.8-debian-12-r3.

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

Bitnami Cassandra container images contain a default cassandra superuser account that should be removed when a custom administrator is configured via CASSANDRA_USER. The container initialization script fails to drop the built-in account in certain scenarios, leaving the default cassandra:cassandra credentials active as an unintended privileged access vector.

MitigationUpgrade affected Bitnami Cassandra container images to patched versions (4.0.20-photon-5-r7+, 4.1.11-photon-5-r7+, or 5.0.8-photon-5-r4+/5.0.8-debian-12-r3+) and verify the default cassandra account is dropped when using custom users.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

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
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/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 checks

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

  1. Identify Bitnami Cassandra container image
    Run 'docker images' or 'crictl images' to list container images and look for 'bitnami/cassandra' or 'bitnami/cassandra-rf' naming pattern
    Affected if Image name contains bitnami/cassandra
  2. Check Cassandra version
    Run 'docker exec <container> cassandra -v' or 'crictl exec <container> cassandra -v' to get the installed Cassandra version, then compare against affected versions 4.0.x (<4.0.20), 4.1.x (<4.1.11), or 5.0.x (<5.0.8)
    Affected if Installed version falls below 4.0.20, 4.1.11, or 5.0.8 in the respective branches
  3. Verify if CASSANDRA_USER was configured
    Check container environment variables by running 'docker inspect <container>' or 'crictl inspect <container>' and look for CASSANDRA_USER variable; if set, custom user creation was intended
    Affected if CASSANDRA_USER is set but the default cassandra account may still be present
  4. Check if default cassandra user exists
    Connect to Cassandra with cqlsh inside the container ('docker exec <container> cqlsh -u cassandra -p cassandra') using default credentials; if authentication succeeds, the default account is active
    Affected if Authentication succeeds with default username 'cassandra' and password 'cassandra' credentials
  5. Inspect authentication configuration
    Check Cassandra config: 'docker exec <container> cat /opt/bitnami/cassandra/conf/cassandra.yaml' and look for authenticator setting; verify whether password authentication is enabled
    Affected if Authenticator is set to PasswordAuthenticator and default cassandra user can still authenticate

A user is affected if running an unpatched Bitnami Cassandra container image version below 4.0.20/4.1.11/5.0.8, configured CASSANDRA_USER but the default cassandra:cassandra superuser account remains accessible.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade affected Bitnami Cassandra container images to patched versions (4.0.20-photon-5-r7+, 4.1.11-photon-5-r7+, or 5.0.8-photon-5-r4+/5.0.8-debian-12-r3+) and verify the default cassandra account is dropped when using custom users.

Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to 4.0.20-photon-5-r7 / 4.1.11-photon-5-r7 / 5.0.8-photon-5-r4 / 5.0.8-debian-12-r3 or later depending on your major version branch

  1. 1. Identify the currently deployed Bitnami Cassandra container image version using 'docker images' or your container orchestration tooling
  2. 2. Determine which base OS variant is in use (Photon or Debian) by checking the image tag
  3. 3. For 4.0.x images: upgrade to version 4.0.20-photon-5-r7 or later
  4. 4. For 4.1.x images: upgrade to version 4.1.11-photon-5-r7 or later
  5. 5. For 5.0.x Photon-based images: upgrade to version 5.0.8-photon-5-r4 or later
  6. 6. For 5.0.x Debian-based images: upgrade to version 5.0.8-debian-12-r3 or later
  7. 7. Update container image references in your deployment manifests (Dockerfile, docker-compose.yml, Kubernetes manifests, etc.)
  8. 8. Pull the new image and redeploy the Cassandra containers
Caveat Standard Cassandra upgrade considerations apply - review Bitnami upgrade documentation for cluster migration steps if upgrading between major versions (e.g., 4.x to 5.x)

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

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,770
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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

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Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-47846 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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