# CVE-2023-25559: System account impersonation in DataHub

> Attackers can impersonate the system user by exploiting case-insensitive header handling in the default configuration, leading to unauthorized privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** High 8.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 10 Feb 2023
- **Updated:** 10 Mar 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-qgp2-qr66-j8r8

## What is CVE-2023-25559?

CVE-2023-25559 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in datahub-project datahub, published on 10 Feb 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

DataHub is an open-source metadata platform. When not using authentication for the metadata service, which is the default configuration, the Metadata service (GMS) will use the X-DataHub-Actor HTTP header to infer the user the frontend is sending the request on behalf of. When the backends retrieves the header, its name is retrieved in a case-insensitive way. This case differential can be abused by an attacker to smuggle an X-DataHub-Actor header with different casing  (eg: X-DATAHUB-ACTOR). This issue may lead to an authorization bypass by allowing any user to impersonate the system user account and perform any actions on its behalf. This vulnerability was discovered and reported by the GitHub Security lab and is tracked as GHSL-2022-079.

Weakness: CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization), CWE-287 (Improper Authentication)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-25559?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Datahub Datahub.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-25559?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-25559 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-25559 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-25559 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in datahub-project datahub

- [CVE-2022-39366](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-39366/): DataHub missing JWT signature check (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2023-25560](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-25560/): JSON Injection in DataHub (high 8.2)
- [CVE-2026-25644](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-25644/): DataHub's LDAP Ingestion Source vulnerable to MITM attack through TLS downgrade (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2023-25557](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-25557/): Server-Side Request Forgery in DataHub (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2023-25562](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-25562/): Failure to Invalidate Session on Logout in DataHub (medium 6.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-25559 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-25559 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in datahub-project datahub, published on 10 Feb 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-25559 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: datahub-project datahub. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-25559/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-25559/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-25559
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-25559
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-25559

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-25559/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.