Improper Authentication in Arvados when using PAM as identity provider
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Security bypass
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-287.
Summary
Arvados is an open source platform for managing and analyzing biomedical big data. In versions prior to 2.4.3, when using Portable Authentication Modules (PAM) for user authentication, if a user presented valid credentials but the account is disabled or otherwise not allowed to access the host (such as an expired password), it would still be accepted for access to Arvados. Other authentication methods (LDAP, OpenID Connect) supported by Arvados are not affected by this flaw. This issue is patched in version 2.4.3. Workaround for this issue is to migrate to a different authentication method supported by Arvados, such as LDAP.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA arvados (arvados) Fixed in 2.4.3
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2022-39238
References
More Arvados vulnerabilities
- TI-2022-16431 Authenticated remote code execution due to insecure deserialization (GHSL-2022-063) CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
Sources
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences