CVE-2020-9480 — Improper Authentication in Apache Spark

Description

In Apache Spark 2.4.5 and earlier, a standalone resource manager's master may be configured to require authentication (spark.authenticate) via a shared secret. When enabled, however, a specially-crafted RPC to the master can succeed in starting an application's resources on the Spark cluster, even without the shared key. This can be leveraged to execute shell commands on the host machine. This does not affect Spark clusters using other resource managers (YARN, Mesos, etc).

Affected products

Vendor	Product	Affected	Fixed
Apache Software Foundation	Apache Spark	Apache Spark 2.4.5 and earlier	—

Public exploits

Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.

Third-party code, not reviewed by us. Public PoCs are sometimes fake or contain malware. Read the code first and run it only in an isolated lab, against systems you are authorised to test.

GitHub 1 repository

XiaoShaYu617/CVE-2020-9480 ★ 0 · Jul 25, 2024

Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.

Automated scanner template

A ready-made Nuclei template detects this vulnerability automatically. Vulnerabilities with public scanner templates are typically probed across the internet soon after the template appears — exposed systems should be patched first.

Apache Spark - Authentication Bypass http/cves/2020/CVE-2020-9480.yaml

Source: projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates (MIT) — updated daily. Only links are listed.

Affected packages

Ecosystem	Package	Affected	Fixed	Record
Maven	org.apache.spark:spark-parent_2.11	< 2.4.6	2.4.6	GHSA-wgx7-jwwm-cgjv
PyPI	pyspark	< 2.4.6	2.4.6	PYSEC-2020-95

Improper Authentication in Apache Spark