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Vulnerability from bitnami_vulndb
Published
2024-03-06 10:54
Modified
2026-09-08 08:34
Summary
Timing Attack Vulnerability for Apache Kafka Connect and Clients
Details

Some components in Apache Kafka use Arrays.equals to validate a password or key, which is vulnerable to timing attacks that make brute force attacks for such credentials more likely to be successful. Users should upgrade to 2.8.1 or higher, or 3.0.0 or higher where this vulnerability has been fixed. The affected versions include Apache Kafka 2.0.0, 2.0.1, 2.1.0, 2.1.1, 2.2.0, 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.3.0, 2.3.1, 2.4.0, 2.4.1, 2.5.0, 2.5.1, 2.6.0, 2.6.1, 2.6.2, 2.7.0, 2.7.1, and 2.8.0.

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{
  "affected": [
    {
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Bitnami",
        "name": "kafka",
        "purl": "pkg:bitnami/kafka"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "2.0.0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "2.6.3"
            },
            {
              "introduced": "2.7.0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "2.7.2"
            },
            {
              "introduced": "2.8.0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "2.8.1"
            }
          ],
          "type": "SEMVER"
        }
      ],
      "severity": [
        {
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N",
          "type": "CVSS_V3"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2021-38153"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cpes": [
      "cpe:2.3:a:apache:kafka:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
      "cpe:2.3:a:apache:kafka:2.8.0:-:*:*:*:*:*:*"
    ],
    "severity": "Medium"
  },
  "details": "Some components in Apache Kafka use `Arrays.equals` to validate a password or key, which is vulnerable to timing attacks that make brute force attacks for such credentials more likely to be successful. Users should upgrade to 2.8.1 or higher, or 3.0.0 or higher where this vulnerability has been fixed. The affected versions include Apache Kafka 2.0.0, 2.0.1, 2.1.0, 2.1.1, 2.2.0, 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.3.0, 2.3.1, 2.4.0, 2.4.1, 2.5.0, 2.5.1, 2.6.0, 2.6.1, 2.6.2, 2.7.0, 2.7.1, and 2.8.0.",
  "id": "BIT-kafka-2021-38153",
  "modified": "2026-09-08T08:34:36.952Z",
  "published": "2024-03-06T10:54:31.089Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://kafka.apache.org/cve-list"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r26390c8b09ecfa356582d665b0c01f4cdcf16ac047c85f9f9f06a88c%40%3Cdev.kafka.apache.org%3E"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r26390c8b09ecfa356582d665b0c01f4cdcf16ac047c85f9f9f06a88c%40%3Cusers.kafka.apache.org%3E"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r35322aec467ddae34002690edaa4d9f16e7df9b5bf7164869b75b62c%40%3Cdev.kafka.apache.org%3E"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r45cc0602d5f2cbb72e48896dfadf5e5b87ed85630449598b40e8f0be%40%3Cdev.kafka.apache.org%3E"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r45cc0602d5f2cbb72e48896dfadf5e5b87ed85630449598b40e8f0be%40%3Cusers.kafka.apache.org%3E"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rd9ef217b09fdefaf32a4e1835b59b96629542db57e1f63edb8b006e6%40%3Cdev.kafka.apache.org%3E"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rd9ef217b09fdefaf32a4e1835b59b96629542db57e1f63edb8b006e6%40%3Cusers.kafka.apache.org%3E"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2022.html"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2022.html"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-38153"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.5.0",
  "summary": "Timing Attack Vulnerability for Apache Kafka Connect and Clients"
}



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