VulnerabilityPublished 16 Jan 2026Updated 20 Jan 2026

CVE-2025-43904: SchedMD Slurm · Incorrect Authorization

Affects SchedMD SlurmSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.2 Medium · fixed in 24.11.5 : update SchedMD Slurm when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.2Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 16% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 24.11.5, 24.05.8, 23.11.11

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: High
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: Low
Integrity: Low
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: High: A successful attack depends on conditions beyond the attacker's control. That is, a successful attack cannot be accomplished at will, but requires the attacker to invest in some measurable amount of effort in preparation or execution against the vulnerable component before a successful attack can be expected. For example, a successful attack may require an attacker to: gather knowledge about the environment in which the vulnerable target/component exists; prepare the target environment to improve exploit reliability; or inject themselves into the logical network path between the target and the resource requested by the victim in order to read and/or modify network communications (e.g., a man in the middle attack).
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the impacted component.
Integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 16 Jan 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade SchedMD Slurm to 24.11.5, 24.05.8 or 23.11.11.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
SchedMDSlurm	Affected >=24.06 <24.11.5	Fixed in 24.11.5
SchedMDSlurm	Affected >=24 <24.05.8	Fixed in 24.05.8
SchedMDSlurm	Affected <23.11.11	Fixed in 23.11.11

AI-suggested

European organizations should implement the following specific mitigations: 1) Immediately audit and restrict Coordinator role assignments to trusted personnel only, minimizing the number of users with such privileges. 2) Monitor and log all role changes and administrative actions within Slurm to detect suspicious privilege escalations promptly. 4) Employ network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure of Slurm management interfaces to only authorized systems and users. 5) Conduct regular security reviews of HPC cluster configurations and user permissions. 6) Consider implementing multi-factor authentication for administrative roles to add an additional security layer. 7) Educate administrators about this vulnerability and the importance of strict role management. These measures will help reduce the attack surface and detect potential exploitation attempts before patches are deployed.

Description

In SchedMD Slurm before 24.11.5, 24.05.8, and 23.11.11, the accounting system can allow a Coordinator to promote a user to Administrator.

Impact

For European organizations, especially those operating HPC clusters in research institutions, universities, and industries relying on Slurm for workload management, this vulnerability poses a risk of unauthorized privilege escalation. An attacker with Coordinator access could gain Administrator privileges, potentially allowing them to alter job scheduling, access sensitive computational data, or disrupt resource allocation. While the CVSS score indicates medium severity, the impact on confidentiality and integrity could be significant in environments processing sensitive or proprietary data. This could lead to intellectual property theft, manipulation of scientific results, or disruption of critical computational workflows. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk, but the widespread use of Slurm in European HPC centers means the vulnerability could be attractive to threat actors targeting research and scientific infrastructure. Additionally, unauthorized administrative access could facilitate further lateral movement or persistence within affected networks.

CWE-863Incorrect Authorization (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #17OWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
The product performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action, but it does not correctly perform the check.
Architecture and Design
Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries.
Architecture and Design
Ensure that access control checks are performed related to the business logic. These checks may be different than the access control checks that are applied to more generic resources such as files, connections, processes, memory, and database records.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.3.8 (opens in a new tab)
V13.4.2 (opens in a new tab)
V7.2.2 (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 23 Jan 2026, 19:51 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-863

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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