GHSA-w88f-4875-99c8
CRITICALGHSA-w88f-4875-99c8 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-338 vulnerability in org.apache.druid:druid. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-w88f-4875-99c8 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Apache Druid’s Kerberos authenticator uses a weak fallback secret
Blast Radius
org.apache.druid:druidReal-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
Apache Druid’s Kerberos authenticator uses a weak fallback secret when the druid.auth.authenticator.kerberos.cookieSignatureSecret configuration is not explicitly set. In this case, the secret is generated using ThreadLocalRandom, which is not a crypto-graphically secure random number generator. This may allow an attacker to predict or brute force the secret used to sign authentication cookies, potentially enabling token forgery or authentication bypass. Additionally, each process generates its own fallback secret, resulting in inconsistent secrets across nodes. This causes authentication failures in distributed or multi-broker deployments, effectively leading to a incorrectly configured clusters. Users are advised to configure a strong druid.auth.authenticator.kerberos.cookieSignatureSecret
This issue affects Apache Druid: through 34.0.0.
Users are recommended to upgrade to version 35.0.0, which fixes the issue making it mandatory to set druid.auth.authenticator.kerberos.cookieSignatureSecret when using the Kerberos authenticator. Services will fail to come up if the secret is not set.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.druid:druid | all versions | 35.0.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.druid:druid. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update org.apache.druid:druid to 35.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-w88f-4875-99c8 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-w88f-4875-99c8 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-w88f-4875-99c8. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-w88f-4875-99c8 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-w88f-4875-99c8 across Maven dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.