Cloudera Technical Service Bulletin 2017-249: Unsafe deserialization in Apache Spark launcher API

Title: Unsafe deserialization in Apache Spark launcher API 

In Apache Spark 1.6.0 until 2.1.1, the launcher API performs unsafe deserialization of data received by its socket. This makes applications launched programmatically using the SparkLauncher#startApplication() API potentially vulnerable to arbitrary code execution by an attacker with access to any user account on the local machine. It does not affect apps run by spark-submit or spark-shell. The attacker would be able to execute code as the user that ran the Spark application. Users are encouraged to update to Spark version 2.2.0 or later.

Products affected: Cloudera's distribution of Apache Spark and Spark in CDH.

Releases affected: 

• CDH: 5.9.0-5.9.2, 5.10.0-5.10.1, 5.11.0-5.11.1
• Cloudera's Distribution of Apache Spark: 2.0 Release 1, 2.0 Release 2, 2.1 Release 1

Users affected: All

Date/time of detection: June 1, 2017

Detected by: Aditya Sharad (Semmle)

Severity (Low/Medium/High): Medium

Impact: Privilege escalation to the user who ran the Spark application

CVE: CVE-2017-12612

Immediate action required: 

• Spark 1.x users: update to CDH 5.9.3, 5.10.2, 5.11.2, or 5.12.0 or later
• Spark 2.x users: update to Cloudera's Distribution of Apache Spark 2.2 Release 1 or later
• Or, discontinue use of the programmatic launcher API

Addressed in release/refresh/patch: 

• CDH: 5.9.3, 5.10.2, 5.11.2, 5.12.0
• Cloudera's Distribution of Apache Spark: 2.2 Release 1

For the latest update on this issue see the corresponding Knowledge article: 

TSB 2017-249: Unsafe deserialization in Apache Spark launcher API *

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