CVE-2018-11770
From version 1.3.0 onward, Apache Spark's standalone master exposes a REST API for job submission, in addition to the submission mechanism…
- 4.2MediumCVSS base score
- 66.1%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.7% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 1Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
From version 1.3.0 onward, Apache Spark's standalone master exposes a REST API for job submission, in addition to the submission mechanism used by spark-submit. In standalone, the config property 'spark.authenticate.secret' establishes a shared secret for authenticating requests to submit jobs via spark-submit. However, the REST API does not use this or any other authentication mechanism, and this is not adequately documented. In this case, a user would be able to run a driver program without authenticating, but not launch executors, using the REST API. This REST API is also used by Mesos, when set up to run in cluster mode (i.e., when also running MesosClusterDispatcher), for job submission. Future versions of Spark will improve documentation on these points, and prohibit setting 'spark.authenticate.secret' when running the REST APIs, to make this clear. Future versions will also disable the REST API by default in the standalone master by changing the default value of 'spark.master.rest.enabled' to 'false'.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list a Metasploit module for it.
Show the exploits1
Metasploit modules1 module
- Apache Spark Unauthenticated Command Execution (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
exploit/linux/http/spark_unauth_rceRank excellentdisclosed 12 Dec 2017
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By apache
- 2 months later
· 2 months later
Published
- 6 years later
· 6 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Medium4.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 66.1% · top 0.7% of all CVEs (11 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 4.2.
Affected products
Apache Software Foundation · Apache Spark
- affected 1.3.0 – < 2.4.0
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Mavenorg.apache.spark:spark-core_2.10GHSA-w4r4-65mg-45x2 (opens in a new tab)
- Mavenorg.apache.spark:spark-core_2.11GHSA-w4r4-65mg-45x2 (opens in a new tab)
References
References3
- https://spark.apache.org/security.html#CVE-2018-11770 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- [dev] 20180813 CVE-2018-11770: Apache Spark standalone master, Mesos REST APIs not controlled by authentication (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- 105097 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2018-0781 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-w4r4-65mg-45x2 (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2018-11770)Record last updated .