CVE-2025-23015: Apache Cassandra: User with MODIFY permission on ALL KEYSPACES can escalate privileges to superuser via unsafe actions

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2025-02-04 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-267

Description

Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions vulnerability in Apache Cassandra. An user with MODIFY permission ON ALL KEYSPACES can escalate privileges to superuser within a targeted Cassandra cluster via unsafe actions to a system resource. Operators granting data MODIFY permission on all keyspaces on affected versions should review data access rules for potential breaches. This issue affects Apache Cassandra through 3.0.30, 3.11.17, 4.0.15, 4.1.7, 5.0.2. Users are recommended to upgrade to versions 3.0.31, 3.11.18, 4.0.16, 4.1.8, 5.0.3, which fixes the issue.

Affected products

Apache Software Foundation Apache Cassandra: from 3.0.0 before 3.0.31; from 3.1 before 3.11.18; from 4.0.0 before 4.0.16; from 4.1.0 before 4.1.8; from 5.0.0 before 5.0.3 — fixed in 3.0.31, 3.11.18, 4.0.16, 4.1.8, 5.0.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Apache Software Foundation Apache Cassandra 3.0.31, 3.11.18, 4.0.16, 4.1.8. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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