CVE-2026-84501

Apache ZooKeeper: Operational log forgery via newline injection in EnsembleAuthenticationProvider

State
Published
Severity
5.3 Medium
Published
Sep 16, 2026
Updated
Sep 16, 2026
Reserved
Sep 1, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

An unauthenticated attacker can inject arbitrary fake log lines into Apache ZooKeeper's operational log by sending a crafted add_auth("ensemble", ...) request containing newline characters (\n). When the ensemble name doesn't match, EnsembleAuthenticationProvider.handleAuthentication() logs the raw, unsanitized name via LOG.warn(). Because SLF4J's {} placeholder preserves embedded newlines, the attacker can forge complete log entries — with arbitrary timestamps, log levels, class names, and messages — that are visually indistinguishable from genuine ZooKeeper log output.

This issue affects Apache ZooKeeper: from 3.9.0 through 3.9.5, from 3.8.0 through 3.8.6.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.8.7 or 3.9.6, which fixes the issue.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.15.3 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:NCISA-ADP

Weaknesses

  • CWE-117 Improper output neutralization for logs

Affected Products

ProductVersions
Apache ZooKeeperApache Software Foundation
  • 3.9.0 through 3.9.5Affected
  • 3.8.0 through 3.8.6Affected

References

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