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Critical Vulnerability in Apache Pinot Allows Attackers to Bypass Authentication

Apache Pinot, an open-source distributed OLAP database used by major companies such as LinkedIn, Uber, and Microsoft for real-time analytics, has recently been found to contain a severe security vulnerability. This flaw, identified as CVE-2024-56325, allows attackers to bypass authentication and gain unauthorized access to the system. The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3 score of 9.8, indicating the highest level of severity.

Cause of the Vulnerability

The root cause of this issue lies in improper neutralization of special characters in the AuthenticationFilter class (org.apache.pinot.core.auth.AuthenticationFilter). This class is responsible for handling URI validation for API endpoints. By using specially crafted sequences (such as %2e%2e/ or null-byte injections), attackers can send HTTP requests that bypass the path normalization mechanism.

For example, by exploiting insufficient sanitization in the shouldAllowUnauthenticatedAccess() method, attackers can manipulate restricted endpoints like /config or /tables, making them accessible without authentication.

This flaw is categorized under CWE-707 (“Improper Neutralization of Control Elements”) and affects the following Apache Pinot versions:

  • Broker: Versions 0.12.0 to 1.2.0
  • Controller: Versions 0.7.0 to 1.2.0

Potential Consequences of Exploitation

Exploiting this vulnerability grants attackers the same privileges as authenticated users, allowing them to:

  • Access internal APIs and Zookeeper configurations (via the /appConfigs endpoint)
  • Execute Groovy scripts through administrative interfaces
  • Exploit the flaw for remote code execution (RCE), as confirmed by security experts

Apache Pinot is designed to handle petabyte-scale datasets with low-latency queries, making compromised instances high-value targets. Attackers could:

  • Steal personally identifiable information (PII/PHI) from real-time analytics pipelines
  • Manipulate financial metrics by injecting fraudulent records
  • Disrupt IoT sensor analytics in production environments
  • Gain access to integrated systems such as Kafka and Hadoop clusters

The Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) assigned this vulnerability ZDI-CAN-24001 and confirmed that only basic HTTP manipulation skills are required to exploit it.

How to Mitigate the Vulnerability

Apache has addressed this flaw in Pinot version 1.3.0 by implementing the URI.normalize() method and regex-based path validation.

Administrators should take the following steps to secure their systems:

  1. Upgrade to the latest version: Update to Pinot 1.3.0 or higher.
  2. Enable Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Enforce role-based access using pinot.controller.access.protocols=http+rbac.
  3. Disable Groovy script execution by setting pinot.server.instance.enable.groovy=false.
  4. Apply Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules: Block URI requests containing sequences such as .., %252e%252e, and %00.

Additional Security Recommendations

✔ Forensic Audit: Review system logs for unauthorized /.. requests that return HTTP 200 responses.
✔ Strict Input Validation: Sanitize and validate all incoming data.
✔ Real-Time Monitoring: Use monitoring tools to detect potential attacks.
✔ Security Training: Conduct regular security awareness training for staff.

Conclusion

This vulnerability in Apache Pinot arose due to authentication logic failing to keep up with query optimization. Similar security issues have been observed in Elasticsearch (CVE-2024-35253) and MongoDB Atlas (CVE-2024-48721).

According to IBM’s 2025 Threat Index, 78% of data breaches result from authentication bypass vulnerabilities. Therefore, implementing strict access validation and sanitization is critical for securing distributed architectures.

Administrators must immediately apply the necessary patches and follow best security practices to prevent future attacks.