CVE-2026-42809CWE-20CWE-862

Apache Polaris: staged table creation could vend storage credentials for unvalidated locations

Critical · published May 4, 2026

CVSS v4.0
9.4
EPSS
1%
Percentile
46.7
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

Apache Polaris can issue broad temporary ("vended") storage credentials during

staged

table creation before the effective table location has been validated or

durably reserved.

Those temporary credentials are meant to limit the scope

of

accessible table data and metadata, but this scope limitation becomes

attacker-

directed because the attacker can choose a reachable target location.

In the confirmed variant, if the caller supplies a custom `location` during

stage create and requests credential vending, Apache Polaris uses that location to

construct delegated storage credentials immediately. The stage-create path

itself neither runs the normal location validation nor the overlap checks

before those credentials are issued.

Closely related to that, the staged-create flow also accepts

`write.data.path` / `write.metadata.path` in the request properties and

feeds

those location overrides into the same effective table location set used for

credential vending. Those fields are secondary to the main custom-`location`

exploit, but they are still attacker-influenced location inputs that should

be

validated before any credentials are issued.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v4.0
9.4 · CRITICAL
Vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H
EPSS
0.00576 · 46.7th percentile
Weaknesses
CWE-20 · Improper Input Validation; CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
Published
2026-05-04T16:22Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 04 MAY 16:22Z
    Apache Polaris: staged table creation could vend storage credentials for unvalidated locations
    cvelistv5