CVE-2026-42809
Those temporary credentials are meant to limit the scope of accessible table data and metadata, but this scope limitation becomes attacker- directed because the attacker can choose a reachable target location.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.36%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
Apache Polaris can issue broad temporary ("vended") storage credentials during staged table creation before the effective table location has been validated or durably reserved. Those temporary credentials are meant to limit the scope of accessible table data and metadata, but this scope limitation becomes attacker- directed because the attacker can choose a reachable target location. In the confirmed variant, if the caller supplies a custom `location` during stage create and requests credential vending, Apache Polaris uses that location to construct delegated storage credentials immediately. The stage-create path itself neither runs the normal location validation nor the overlap checks before those credentials are issued. Closely related to that, the staged-create flow also accepts `write.data.path` / `write.metadata.path` in the request properties and feeds those location overrides into the same effective table location set used for credential vending. Those fields are secondary to the main custom-`location` exploit, but they are still attacker-influenced location inputs that should be validated before any credentials are issued.
- CVSS 4.0
- 9.4 CRITICALCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/M
- EPSS
- 0.36% probability · 29th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-20, CWE-862
- Affected
- apache/polaris
- Source
- security@apache.org
References
- https://lists.apache.org/thread/8tfsr8y7pgq6rdcvjx95hkcr47td671rMailing List, Vendor Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/05/02/10Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.