CVE-2024-31141 — kafka-clients
MEDIUMCVE-2024-31141 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in org.apache.kafka:kafka-clients. A fix is available for org.apache.kafka:kafka-clients — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Apache Kafka Clients: Privilege escalation to filesystem read-access via automatic ConfigProvider
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-31141.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
org.apache.kafka:kafka-clientsReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Files or Directories Accessible to External Parties, Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in Apache Kafka Clients.
Apache Kafka Clients accept configuration data for customizing behavior, and includes ConfigProvider plugins in order to manipulate these configurations. Apache Kafka also provides FileConfigProvider, DirectoryConfigProvider, and EnvVarConfigProvider implementations which include the ability to read from disk or environment variables. In applications where Apache Kafka Clients configurations can be specified by an untrusted party, attackers may use these ConfigProviders to read arbitrary contents of the disk and environment variables.
In particular, this flaw may be used in Apache Kafka Connect to escalate from REST API access to filesystem/environment access, which may be undesirable in certain environments, including SaaS products. This issue affects Apache Kafka Clients: from from 2.3.0 through 3.5.2, 3.6.0 through 3.6.2, and 3.7.0.
Users with affected applications are recommended to upgrade kafka-clients to version >=3.8.0, and set the JVM system property "org.apache.kafka.automatic.config.providers=none". Users of Kafka Connect with one of the listed ConfigProvider implementations specified in their worker config are also recommended to add appropriate "allowlist.pattern" and "allowed.paths" to restrict their operation to appropriate bounds.
For users of Kafka Clients or Kafka Connect in environments that trust users with disk and environment variable access, it is not recommended to set the system property. For users of the Kafka Broker, Kafka MirrorMaker 2.0, Kafka Streams, and Kafka command-line tools, it is not recommended to set the system property.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.kafka:kafka-clients | ≥ 2.3.0&&< 3.7.1 | 3.7.1org.apache.kafka:kafka-clients:3.7.1 |
Affected Products
kafkaapacheDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.kafka:kafka-clients, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.apache.kafka:kafka-clients to 3.7.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-31141 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Close the privilege gap rather than the entry point: audit which accounts, roles and service identities can reach the affected operation, drop the component to the least privilege it actually needs, and review file and directory permissions created by earlier installs — a default left in place is what makes this reachable.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Moderate impact affects Red Hat products and services that include Apache Kafka Clients when an attacker with low privileges can cause an application to process attacker-controlled client configuration. Over the network, and with high attack complexity, the attacker may abuse the automatic FileConfigProvider,…
For applications in which an untrusted party can specify Apache Kafka Client configuration, disable automatic configuration providers by setting the JVM system property org.apache.kafka.automatic.config.providers=none. For Kafka Connect workers that must use the listed providers, restrict them with appropriate allowlist.pattern and allowed.paths settings. Upgrade kafka-clients to version 3.8.0 or later, or apply the applicable vendor fix. The system-property restriction is not recommended for Kafka Clients or Kafka Connect deployments where users are trusted with disk and environment access, or for Kafka Broker, Kafka MirrorMaker 2.0, Kafka Streams, and Kafka command-line tools.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2024-31141 (CC BY 4.0)
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4.8 for Spring Boot | kafka-clients | RHSA-2024:10700 |
| Streams for Apache Kafka 2.9.0 | see advisory | RHSA-2025:2416 |
| Streams for Apache Kafka 2.9.1 | see advisory | RHSA-2025:9922 |
| Streams for Apache Kafka 3.0.0 | see advisory | RHSA-2025:12511 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-31141 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.