CVE-2025-8904Network attack vector

Privilege escalation via exposed Kerberos keytab

Published Aug 13, 2025 · Updated Feb 26, 2026

Privilege escalation in Amazon EMR 6.10 through 7.4 allows remote authenticated users to gain higher privileges via exposed Kerberos credentials. Secret Agent stages a recoverable Kerberos keytab in /tmp, where another account with directory access can obtain and decrypt its keys. Exposure requires Lake Formation, Apache Ranger, runtime role, or Identity Center functionality that uses Secret Agent.

CVSS severity9.0
Critical
EPSS probability0.34%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Privilege escalation in Amazon EMR 6.10 through 7.4 allows remote authenticated users to gain higher privileges via exposed Kerberos credentials. Secret Agent stages a recoverable Kerberos keytab in /tmp, where another account with directory access can obtain and decrypt its keys. Exposure requires Lake Formation, Apache Ranger, runtime role, or Identity Center functionality that uses Secret Agent.

The record

CVE
CVE-2025-8904
Published
Aug 13, 2025
Updated
Feb 26, 2026
Vendor
Amazon Web Services
Product
Amazon EMR
Classifications
CWE-257, CAPEC-233, T1552.001
Attack vector
network
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Aug 13, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Feb 26, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=6.10 <7.4

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

Amazon Web Services · Amazon EMRversion=6.10 <7.4

Published CVSS scores

9.0AmazonCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H
8.5AmazonCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectornetwork
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-257Storing Passwords in a Recoverable Format
CAPEC-233Privilege Escalation
T1552.001Credentials In Files

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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