Disabled Hostname Verification makes Brokers, Proxies vulnerable to MITM attack

Description

TLS hostname verification cannot be enabled in the Pulsar Broker's Java Client, the Pulsar Broker's Java Admin Client, the Pulsar WebSocket Proxy's Java Client, and the Pulsar Proxy's Admin Client leaving intra-cluster connections and geo-replication connections vulnerable to man in the middle attacks, which could leak credentials, configuration data, message data, and any other data sent by these clients. The vulnerability is for both the pulsar+ssl protocol and HTTPS. An attacker can only take advantage of this vulnerability by taking control of a machine 'between' the client and the server. The attacker must then actively manipulate traffic to perform the attack by providing the client with a cryptographically valid certificate for an unrelated host. This issue affects Apache Pulsar Broker, Proxy, and WebSocket Proxy versions 2.7.0 to 2.7.4; 2.8.0 to 2.8.3; 2.9.0 to 2.9.2; 2.10.0; 2.6.4 and earlier.

Timeline

Scores

EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)

0.72% · top 46% of all CVEs (11 Nov 2026)

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.9.

Affected products

• Apache Software Foundation · Apache Pulsar

  • affected 2.10.0
  • affected 2.7 – ≤ 2.7.4
  • affected 2.8 – ≤ 2.8.3
  • affected 2.9 – ≤ 2.9.2
  • affected 2.6 and earlier – ≤ 2.6.4

Affected packages

From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.

• Mavenorg.apache.pulsar:pulsar-brokerGHSA-jvf3-mfxv-jcqr (opens in a new tab)
• Mavenorg.apache.pulsar:pulsar-proxyGHSA-jvf3-mfxv-jcqr (opens in a new tab)

What to do

Workaround: Any users running affected versions of the Pulsar Broker, Pulsar Proxy, or Pulsar WebSocket Proxy should rotate static authentication data vulnerable to man in the middle attacks used by these applications, including tokens and passwords. To enable hostname verification, update the following configuration files. In the Broker configuration (broker.conf, by default) and in the WebSocket Proxy configuration (websocket.conf, by default), set: brokerClient_tlsHostnameVerificationEnable=true In Pulsar Helm chart deployments, the Broker and WebSocket Proxy setting name should be prefixed with "PULSAR_PREFIX_". In the Proxy configuration (proxy.conf, by default), set: tlsHostnameVerificationEnabled=true 2.7 users should upgrade Pulsar Brokers, Proxies, and WebSocket Proxies to 2.7.5, rotate vulnerable authentication data, including tokens and passwords, and apply the above configuration. 2.8 users should upgrade Pulsar Brokers, Proxies, and WebSocket Proxies to 2.8.4, rotate vulnerable authentication data, including tokens and passwords, and apply the above configuration. 2.9 users should upgrade Pulsar Brokers, Proxies, and WebSocket Proxies to 2.9.3, rotate vulnerable authentication data, including tokens and passwords, and apply the above configuration. 2.10 users should upgrade Pulsar Brokers, Proxies, and WebSocket Proxies to 2.10.1, rotate vulnerable authentication data, including tokens and passwords, and apply the above configuration. Any users running Pulsar Brokers, Proxies, and WebSocket Proxies for 2.6.4 and earlier should upgrade to one of the above patched versions, rotate vulnerable authentication data, including tokens and passwords, and apply the above configuration.

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-2022-6863 (opens in a new tab)
• OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
• GitHub Advisory GHSA-jvf3-mfxv-jcqr (opens in a new tab)
• CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)

Badge for a README or a ticket

[![CVE-2022-33682](https://cveledger.app/badge/CVE-2022-33682.svg)](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2022-33682)

Record last updated 27 May 2025, 14:46 UTC.