Privilege escalation from having CREATE access on a keyspace in Scylladb

published 2023-09-27 3 y ago modified 2026-09-08 2 mo ago also BIT-scylladb-2023-33972 , EUVD-2023-38098 , GHSA-ww5v-p45p-3vhq

cvss: 7.2; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.6%; EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 50%
public exploits: 0; none known

Scylladb is a NoSQL data store using the seastar framework, compatible with Apache Cassandra. Authenticated users who are authorized to create tables in a keyspace can escalate their privileges to access a table in the same keyspace, even if they don't have permissions for that table. This issue has not yet been patched. A workaround to address this issue is to disable CREATE privileges on a keyspace, and create new tables on behalf of other users.

Patch / fix

fixed in 1

bitnami scylladb 5.2.9

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: total
Assessed: 2 y ago (2024-09-23)

Exploit prediction

0.64% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 50% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	7.2	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	3.1	8.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
OSV	3.1	8.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem	package	affected	fixed in
bitnami	scylladb	<5.2.9	5.2.9

Affected products

scylladb scylladb

Classification

Weakness

CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management

References

github.com /scylladb/scylladb/security/advisories/GHSA-ww5v-p45p-3vhq
vendor-advisory, advisory
nvd.nist.gov /vuln/detail/CVE-2023-33972
web

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary