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Message-ID: <aa5fdede-7f0f-2874-08f8-9b1298ebb256@apache.org>
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2025 19:48:13 +0000
From: Holden Karau <holden@...che.org>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: CVE-2025-55039: Apache Spark: RPC encryption
defaults to unauthenticated AES-CTR mode, enabling man-in-the-middle
ciphertext modification attacks
Severity: moderate
Affected versions:
- Apache Spark (org.apache.spark:spark-network-common_2.13) 3.5.0 before 3.5.2
- Apache Spark (org.apache.spark:spark-network-common_2.13) before 3.4.4
- Apache Spark (org.apache.spark:spark-network-common_2.12) 3.5.0 before 3.5.2
- Apache Spark (org.apache.spark:spark-network-common_2.12) before 3.4.4
Description:
This issue affects Apache Spark versions before 3.4.4, 3.5.2 and 4.0.0.
Apache Spark versions before 4.0.0, 3.5.2 and 3.4.4 use an insecure default network encryption cipher for RPC communication between nodes.
When spark.network.crypto.enabled is set to true (it is set to false by default), but spark.network.crypto.cipher is not explicitly configured, Spark defaults to AES in CTR mode (AES/CTR/NoPadding), which provides encryption without authentication.
This vulnerability allows a man-in-the-middle attacker to modify encrypted RPC traffic undetected by flipping bits in ciphertext, potentially compromising heartbeat messages or application data and affecting the integrity of Spark workflows.
To mitigate this issue, users should either configure spark.network.crypto.cipher to AES/GCM/NoPadding to enable authenticated encryption or
enable SSL encryption by setting spark.ssl.enabled to true, which provides stronger transport security.
References:
https://spark.apache.org/
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-55039
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