Improper Handling of TLS Client Authentication Failure Leading to Anonymous Principal Assignment in Apache Storm
Versions Affected: up to 2.8.7
Description: When TLS transport is enabled in Apache Storm without requiring client certificate authentication (the default configuration), the TlsTransportPlugin assigns a fallback principal (CN=ANONYMOUS) if no client certificate is presented or if certificate verification fails. The underlying SSLPeerUnverifiedException is caught and suppressed rather than rejecting the connection.
This fail-open behavior means an unauthenticated client can establish a TLS connection and receive a valid principal identity. If the configured authorizer (e.g., SimpleACLAuthorizer) does not explicitly deny access to CN=ANONYMOUS, this may result in unauthorized access to Storm services. The condition is logged at debug level only, reducing visibility in production.
Impact: Unauthenticated clients may be assigned a principal identity, potentially bypassing authorization in permissive or misconfigured environments.
Mitigation: Users should upgrade to 2.8.7 in which TLS authentication failures are handled in a fail-closed manner.
Users who cannot upgrade immediately should: - Enable mandatory client certificate authentication (nimbus.thrift.tls.client.auth.required: true) - Ensure authorization rules explicitly deny access to CN=ANONYMOUS - Review all ACL configurations for implicit default-allow behavior
{
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-287"
],
"osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/41xxx/CVE-2026-41081.json",
"unresolved_ranges": [
{
"extracted_events": [
{
"fixed": "2.8.7"
}
],
"source": "AFFECTED_FIELD"
}
],
"cna_assigner": "apache"
}