VulnerabilityPublished 16 Sep 2026Updated 17 Sep 2026

CVE-2026-84439: Apache ZooKeeper · Log Injection

Affects Apache ZooKeeperSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.3 Medium · fixed in 3.8.7 : update Apache ZooKeeper when convenient.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 20:25 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.3Medium

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

EPSS: 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 54% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 3.8.7

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
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: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
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: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within 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 Sep 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: 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 30 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.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), 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.

ghsa-mxvw-9w3g-hmrq

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Apache Software FoundationApache ZooKeeper	Affected >=3.9.0 <=3.9.5 >=3.8.0 <=3.8.6	Fixed in–
MavenApache Software Foundation/org.apache.zookeeper:zookeeper`pkg:maven/Apache Software Foundation/org.apache.zookeeper:zookeeper`Other threats	Affected >=3.9.0 <=3.9.5 >=3.8.0 <=3.8.6	Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

A fix is available. Users should upgrade Apache ZooKeeper to version 3.8.7 or 3.9.6 or later, where the issue is resolved by properly escaping tab characters in audit logs. Until upgraded, users should be aware that audit logs may be susceptible to forgery if audit logging is enabled. No other vendor advisories indicate alternative mitigations or that the issue is already mitigated.

Description

CVE-2026-84439 is a log injection vulnerability in Apache ZooKeeper affecting versions 3.8.0 through 3.8.6 and 3.9.0 through 3.9.5. When audit logging is enabled, an unauthenticated attacker can inject arbitrary fields into the audit log by sending digest authentication requests with tab characters in the username. This allows the attacker to forge audit log entries, potentially misleading forensic analysis and incident response. The issue is fixed in versions 3.8.7 and 3.9.6.

Impact

The vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to inject forged fields into the audit log, undermining the integrity and reliability of audit records. This can mislead incident response and forensic investigations by presenting false audit results and operation types. There is no direct confidentiality or availability impact reported. The CVSS score is 5.3 (medium severity), reflecting the integrity impact without confidentiality or availability loss.

Summary

This vulnerability arises from improper output neutralization for logs (CWE-117) in Apache ZooKeeper's audit logging feature. Specifically, when audit logging is enabled (zookeeper.audit.enable=true), the server does not escape tab characters in digest ACL IDs serialized into the audit log. Since the audit log format uses tab-separated key=value pairs, an attacker can inject tabs in the username field of a digest authentication request, causing the log parser to interpret injected data as legitimate fields. This enables spoofing of audit results such as 'result=success', forging operation types like 'operation=delete', and corrupting forensic evidence. The vulnerability affects Apache ZooKeeper versions 3.8.0 through 3.8.6 and 3.9.0 through 3.9.5. The issue is resolved in versions 3.8.7 and 3.9.6.

CWE-117Improper Output Neutralization for Logs (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumOWASP Top 10 A09:2025: Security Logging & Alerting Failures (opens in a new tab)
The product constructs a log message from external input, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements when the message is written to a log file.
Implementation · Input Validation
Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
Implementation · Output Encoding
Use and specify an output encoding that can be handled by the downstream component that is reading the output. Common encodings include ISO-8859-1, UTF-7, and UTF-8.
Implementation · Input Validation
Inputs should be decoded and canonicalized to the application's current internal representation before being validated (CWE-180). Make sure that the application does not decode the same input twice (CWE-174).
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Logging (opens in a new tab)
Content Security Policy (opens in a new tab)
Application Logging Vocabulary (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V7.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
V14.4.6 (opens in a new tab)
V14.4.4 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Audit Log Manipulation (opens in a new tab)
Web Server Logs Tampering (opens in a new tab)
Log Injection-Tampering-Forging (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 17 Oct 2026, 23:29 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-117

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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