CVE-2018-8023: Apache Mesos

Medium severity, CVSS 5.9. EPSS: 3.1% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Apache Mesos can be configured to require authentication to call the Executor HTTP API using JSON Web Token (JWT). In Apache Mesos versions pre-1.4.2, 1.5.0, 1.5.1, 1.6.0 the comparison of the generated HMAC value against the provided signature in the JWT implementation used is vulnerable to a timing attack because instead of a constant-time string comparison routine a standard `==` operator has been used. A malicious actor can therefore abuse the timing difference of when the JWT validation function returns to reveal the correct HMAC value.

Affected products

• Apache Mesos: before 1.4.2 (fixed in 1.4.2); version 1.5.0 only; version 1.5.1 only; version 1.6.0 only

Published 2018-09-21. Last modified 2026-06-17.