Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
medium 5.3

CVE-2024-56128 json

Apache Kafka: SCRAM authentication vulnerable to replay attacks when used without encryption

published 2024-12-18 22 mo ago modified 2026-09-10 1 mo ago also BIT-kafka-2024-56128 , EUVD-2024-3603 , GHSA-p7c9-8xx8-h74f

cvss
5.3
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.8%
EPSS 0.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 57%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Incorrect Implementation of Authentication Algorithm in Apache Kafka's SCRAM implementation.

Issue Summary: Apache Kafka's implementation of the Salted Challenge Response Authentication Mechanism (SCRAM) did not fully adhere to the requirements of RFC 5802 [1]. Specifically, as per RFC 5802, the server must verify that the nonce sent by the client in the second message matches the nonce sent by the server in its first message. However, Kafka's SCRAM implementation did not perform this validation.

Impact: This vulnerability is exploitable only when an attacker has plaintext access to the SCRAM authentication exchange. However, the usage of SCRAM over plaintext is strongly discouraged as it is considered an insecure practice [2]. Apache Kafka recommends deploying SCRAM exclusively with TLS encryption to protect SCRAM exchanges from interception [3]. Deployments using SCRAM with TLS are not affected by this issue.

How to Detect If You Are Impacted: If your deployment uses SCRAM authentication over plaintext communication channels (without TLS encryption), you are likely impacted. To check if TLS is enabled, review your server.properties configuration file for listeners property. If you have SASL_PLAINTEXT in the listeners, then you are likely impacted.

Fix Details: The issue has been addressed by introducing nonce verification in the final message of the SCRAM authentication exchange to ensure compliance with RFC 5802.

Affected Versions: Apache Kafka versions 0.10.2.0 through 3.9.0, excluding the fixed versions below.

Fixed Versions: 3.9.0 3.8.1 3.7.2

Users are advised to upgrade to 3.7.2 or later to mitigate this issue.

Recommendations for Mitigation: Users unable to upgrade to the fixed versions can mitigate the issue by: - Using TLS with SCRAM Authentication: Always deploy SCRAM over TLS to encrypt authentication exchanges and protect against interception. - Considering Alternative Authentication Mechanisms: Evaluate alternative authentication mechanisms, such as PLAIN, Kerberos or OAuth with TLS, which provide additional layers of security.

Patch / fix

  • maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.13 3.7.2, 3.8.1
  • maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.12 3.7.2, 3.8.1
  • bitnami kafka 3.7.2, 3.8.1
  • Apache Software Foundation Apache Kafka 3.7.2

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2024-56128 updated cvss 7.4

kafka: Apache Kafka: SCRAM authentication vulnerable to replay attacks when used without encryption

  • Red Hat Fuse 7 kafka_2.13
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Integration Camel K 1 org.apache.kafka/kafka_2.12 org.apache.kafka/kafka_2.12
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform Expansion Pack kafka_2.12 Red Hat streams for Apache Kafka kafka_2.13
    affected: workaround, no fix available
  • Red Hat Streams for Apache Kafka 2.9.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:9922
  • Red Hat Streams for Apache Kafka 3.0.0
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:12511
  • Red Hat Streams for Apache Kafka 3.1.0
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:23417
  • Red Hat build of Debezium 2 kafka_2.13 Red Hat Fuse 7 org.apache.kafka/kafka_2.12 org.apache.kafka/kafka_2.12 Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7 kafka_2.12, kafka_2.13 Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 8 kafka_2.12, kafka_2.13 Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform Expansion Pack kafka_2.13
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
22 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.82% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 57% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
GitHub 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
CNA 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
OSV 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.13
>=0.10.2.0, <3.7.2
>=3.8.0, <3.8.1
3.7.2
3.8.1
maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.12
>=0.10.2.0, <3.7.2
>=3.8.0, <3.8.1
3.7.2
3.8.1
maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.11
>=0.10.2.0, <=2.4.1
 no fix listed
maven org.apache.kafka:kafka_2.10
>=0.10.2.0, <=0.10.2.2
 no fix listed
bitnami kafka
>=3.8.0, <3.8.1
>=0.10.2, <3.7.2
3.8.1
3.7.2

Affected products

  • Apache Software Foundation Apache Kafka

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-303 Incorrect Implementation of Authentication Algorithm

References

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.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.