CVE-2021-34538 Apache Hive Security vulnerability in Hive with UDFs

What is CVE-2021-34538?

CVE-2021-34538 is a high-severity missing authorization vulnerability in Apache Hive, published on 16 Jul 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Apache Hive before 3.1.3 "CREATE" and "DROP" function operations does not check for necessary authorization of involved entities in the query. It was found that an unauthorized user can manipulate an existing UDF without having the privileges to do so. This allowed unauthorized or underprivileged users to drop and recreate UDFs pointing them to new jars that could be potentially malicious.

Weakness: CWE-306

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-34538?

2 open source packages ship an affected version, including org.apache.hive:hive. It affects 1 product.

Products include Apache Hive.

How do I fix CVE-2021-34538?

Upgrade org.apache.hive:hive to 3.1.3 or later.

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

Is CVE-2021-34538 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-34538 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Apache Hive

• CVE-2026-49845 Apache Hive: SQL Injection vulnerability in HiveMetaStore partition-name direct-SQL paths Critical 9.8
• CVE-2018-21234 Deserialization of Untrusted Data in Jodd Critical 9.8
• CVE-2026-55976 Apache Hive: SSRF vulnerability in Hive Avro Serde due to Insufficient input validation on avro.schema.url Critical 9.1
• CVE-2018-1282 SQL Injection in hive-jdbc Critical 9.1
• CVE-2022-41137 Apache Hive: Deserialization of untrusted data when fetching partitions from the Metastore High 8.3

Sources

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

Also known as CLSA-2025-1751328156, GHSA-v3p8-j597-3xg8.