CVE-2026-83525
Description
A flaw was found in Apache Kafka. An authenticated attacker with cluster administrative privileges can cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by sending a crafted snapshot request containing an empty topics array or a topic without partitions. Due to improper input handling in the FetchSnapshot Remote Procedure Call (RPC) handler, this issue causes the controller process to terminate unexpectedly.
Statement
This vulnerability is assessed as Moderate severity for Red Hat deployments because exploiting it requires an attacker to possess elevated cluster-level privileges (CLUSTER_ACTION). In standard production configurations, standard clients and untrusted users lack administrative authorization to issue snapshot fetch commands directly to the metadata controller. Although successful exploitation causes the controller daemon to crash and interrupts cluster coordination, the prerequisite of having high administrative access substantially limits the practical attack surface compared to an unauthenticated remote outage.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability,Confidentiality
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; Read Application Data
An uncaught exception could cause the system to be placed in a state that could lead to a crash, exposure of sensitive information, or other unintended behaviors.
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