CVE-2016-8746 Apache Ranger policy engine incorrectly matches paths in certain conditions

What is CVE-2016-8746?

CVE-2016-8746 is a medium-severity missing authorization vulnerability in Apache Ranger, published on 14 Jun 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Apache Ranger before 0.6.3 policy engine incorrectly matches paths in certain conditions when policy does not contain wildcards and has recursion flag set to true.

Weakness: CWE-426

Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-8746?

2 open source packages ship an affected version, including org.apache.ranger:ranger-plugins-common. It affects 1 product.

Products include Apache Ranger.

How do I fix CVE-2016-8746?

Upgrade org.apache.ranger:ranger-plugins-common to 0.6.3 or later.

Upgrade, and check permissions on every request on the server, not only in the interface. More about Missing authorization.

Is CVE-2016-8746 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-8746 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Apache Ranger

• CVE-2026-28672 Apache Ranger: OS Command Injection via Username in UnixUserGroupBuilder Critical 9.8
• CVE-2026-32227 Apache Ranger: SQL Injection vulnerability in lookup functionality Critical 9.8
• CVE-2026-40920 Apache Ranger: Privilege Escalation via URL Parameter Critical 9.8
• CVE-2026-42537 Apache Ranger: Remote Code Execution via JDBC URL Injection Critical 9.8
• CVE-2026-44416 Apache Ranger: Remote Code Execution via Arbitrary Class Instantiation Critical 9.8

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-xv7x-x6wr-xx7g.