CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-31442 — Lightbend Akka Actor security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.5

In Lightbend Akka before 2.8.1, the async-dns resolver (used by Discovery in DNS mode and transitively by Cluster Bootstrap) uses predictable DNS transaction IDs when resolving DNS records, making DNS resolution subject to poisoning by an attacker. If the application performing discovery does not validate (e.g., via TLS) the authenticity of the discovered service, this may result in exfiltration of application data (e.g., persistence events may be published to an unintended Kafka broker). If such validation is performed, then the poisoning constitutes a denial of access to the intended service. This affects Akka 2.5.14 through 2.8.0, and Akka Discovery through 2.8.0.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.5 (3.1)
Published
2023-05-11
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application

Affected products

  • lightbend / akka_actor
  • lightbend / akka_discovery

Matched remediation archetype

General vulnerability remediation

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Check exposure

  • Confirm the affected component, deployment paths, reachable interfaces, and enabled features from inventories and configuration, without probing production destructively.
  • Compare the advisory's affected conditions with the repository lockfiles, build manifests, artifacts, and runtime inventory.
  • Identify data sensitivity, trust boundaries, and privilege level for every confirmed affected deployment.

Remediate safely

  • Apply a vendor-supported fix or remove the affected component or feature; record the selected change and its source in the repository.
  • Update direct and transitive dependency locks, generated artifacts, deployment manifests, and asset inventories together.
  • Add a regression test for the documented unsafe condition using inert inputs and preserve rollback instructions.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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