CVE-2023-44981

CRITICALNVD 9.19.1—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

This critical-severity CVE scores 9.1 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 1.7%, top 25% of all CVEs by exploit prediction. GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).

Triggered by: NVD CVSS baseline
Sources: epss, nvd
9.1EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 2%CVSS: 9.1Exploit: None knownExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key vulnerability in Apache ZooKeeper. If SASL Quorum Peer authentication is enabled in ZooKeeper (quorum.auth.enableSasl=true), the authorization is done by verifying that the instance part in SASL authentication ID is listed in zoo.cfg server list. The instance part in SASL auth ID is optional and if it's missing, like '[email protected]', the authorization check will be skipped. As a result an arbitrary endpoint could join the cluster and begin propagating counterfeit changes to the leader, essentially giving it complete read-write access to the data tree. Quorum Peer authentication is not enabled by default.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.9.1, 3.8.3, 3.7.2, which fixes the issue.

Alternately ensure the ensemble election/quorum communication is protected by a firewall as this will mitigate the issue.

See the documentation for more details on correct cluster administration.

CVSS v3
9.1
EG Score
9.1(medium)
EG Risk
57(Track)
EG Risk 57/100SSVC: Track

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity91% × 45%
Exploitation2% × 40%
Automatability100% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
2%
EPSS %ILE
75%
KEV
Not listed

Published

October 11, 2023

Last Modified

June 17, 2026

Advisory Details (5)

Auto-updated Jul 23, 2026
Patch available.
generic

[SECURITY] [DSA 5544-1] zookeeper security update

https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5544
generic

NetApp Product Security

https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20240621-0007/
generic Patch Available

[SECURITY] [DLA 3624-1] zookeeper security update

https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/10/msg00029.html
generic
https://lists.apache.org/thread/wf0yrk84dg1942z1o74kd8nycg6pgm5b
generic

oss-security - CVE-2023-44981: Apache ZooKeeper: Authorization bypass in SASL Quorum Peer Authentication

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/10/11/4

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2023-44981(1)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Patch Availability(4)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntuzookeeperd (3.4.5+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1~esm3) @ trusty2026-05-24ubuntu
redhatpatch2024-05-21redhat
redhatpatch2024-02-20redhat
redhatzookeeper2024-02-06redhat

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Affected Packages

(1 across 1 ecosystem)
Maven(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
org.apache.zookeeper:zookeeper3.9.03.9.1—

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Additional Vendor Advisories

(4)

Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 12× in last 7d / 46× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 113 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-25 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-24 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-23 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-23 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-23 02:27 UTCEG score recompute
  8. 2026-07-22 23:13 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-21 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-21 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-20 17:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-07-19 14:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-07-18 10:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-07-18 10:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-07-16 17:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-07-16 17:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-15 16:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-07-15 16:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-15 07:19 UTCOSV refresh
  22. 2026-07-15 01:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-07-13 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-13 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-13 06:11 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-07-13 06:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-12 05:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-12 05:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-11 08:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-11 08:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-09 19:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-08 15:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-07 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-06 16:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-06 16:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-06 02:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-05 02:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-07-01 15:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-30 23:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-30 23:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-29 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-28 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-28 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-28 04:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-28 04:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-27 08:04 UTCOSV refresh
  23. 2026-06-27 03:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-27 03:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-06-24 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-06-24 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-06-22 14:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-06-22 14:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-06-21 14:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-06-21 14:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-06-19 19:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-06-19 19:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-06-18 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-06-17 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-06-17 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-06-16 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-06-16 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-06-15 17:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  43. 2026-06-15 17:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-06-14 23:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-06-13 22:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-06-13 22:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  49. 2026-06-11 13:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-06-11 13:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  51. 2026-06-10 22:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  52. 2026-06-10 13:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  53. 2026-06-10 13:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  54. 2026-06-09 18:17 UTCOSV refresh
  55. 2026-06-08 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  56. 2026-06-08 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  57. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  58. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  59. 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  60. 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  61. 2026-06-05 22:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  62. 2026-06-05 22:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  63. 2026-06-05 06:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  64. 2026-06-05 06:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  65. 2026-06-05 06:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  66. 2026-06-04 13:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  67. 2026-06-04 13:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  68. 2026-06-02 20:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  69. 2026-06-02 20:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  70. 2026-06-01 13:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  71. 2026-06-01 13:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  72. 2026-05-31 22:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  73. 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  74. 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2023-44981?
CVE-2023-44981 is a critical vulnerability published on October 11, 2023. Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key vulnerability in Apache ZooKeeper. If SASL Quorum Peer authentication is enabled in ZooKeeper (quorum.auth.enableSasl=true), the authorization is done by verifying that the instance part in SASL authentication ID is listed in zoo.cfg server list. The…
When was CVE-2023-44981 disclosed?
CVE-2023-44981 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on October 11, 2023, with the most recent update on June 17, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2023-44981 actively exploited?
CVE-2023-44981 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 25.0% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-44981?
CVE-2023-44981 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.1 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2023-44981?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2023-44981, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2023-44981

Explore →

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2023-44981?

EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.

Start Free Scan →Browse All CVEs