Missing Admin Auth on Notification Target Endpoints in RustFS

Finding Summary

All four notification target admin API endpoints in rustfs/src/admin/handlers/event.rs use a check_permissions helper that validates authentication only (access key + session token), without performing any admin-action authorization via validate_admin_request. Every other admin handler in the codebase correctly calls validate_admin_request with a specific AdminAction. This is the only admin handler file that skips authorization.

A non-admin user can overwrite a shared admin-defined notification target by name, causing subsequent bucket events to be delivered to an attacker-controlled endpoint. This enables cross-user event interception and audit evasion.

What Was Proven Live

1. Authorization bypass on all four endpoints (03_readonly_user_bypass.py)

   • PUT, GET list, GET arns, DELETE all return 200 for readonly-user
   • Control routes (list-users, kms/status) correctly return 403
   • Unauthenticated requests correctly rejected (403 Signature required)

2. SSRF via health probe (04_ssrf_listener_landing.py)

   • HEAD request from rustfs container to attacker-controlled listener
   • No host validation: only scheme check (http/https)

3. Target hijacking and event exfiltration (05_target_hijacking.py, 06_full_event_exfil.py)

   • Readonly-user overwrites admin-configured target URL by name
   • Subsequent S3 events delivered to attacker-controlled endpoint
   • Captured event body includes object keys, bucket names, user identities, and request metadata

4. Audit evasion (05_target_hijacking.py)

   • Readonly-user can delete unbound targets
   • Readonly-user can overwrite bound targets (silently redirecting events)

Escalation Vectors Tested But Not Viable

1. Self-referencing webhook to admin API (13_self_referencing_test.py)

   • Webhook sends unsigned POST with event JSON body
   • Admin endpoints require SigV4 auth -- unsigned request rejected
   • "Confused deputy" via self-referencing does NOT work

2. Protocol smuggling via non-HTTP targets

   • Only 2 target types implemented: webhook and MQTT (event.rs:613 enforces this)
   • No Redis, Kafka, AMQP, or other protocol targets exist
   • CRLF injection in webhook config fields sanitized by reqwest
   • MQTT uses rumqttc (pure Rust binary protocol client), no raw TCP injection

3. MQTT target for RCE

   • No unsafe code in MQTT handler
   • rumqttc 0.29.0 has no known public CVEs
   • No Command::new, template engines, or deserialization of broker responses

4. Unauth access

   • Endpoints correctly reject unauthenticated requests (403)
   • Endpoints correctly reject invalid credentials (403)

Prior Art

No existing advisory covers notification target endpoints. 11 published GHSAs on rustfs/rustfs cover different handlers. Closest:

• CVE-2026-22042 (ImportIam wrong action constant) -- same bug class, different file
• CVE-2026-22043 (deny_only short-circuit) -- different bug class

Recommendation

Submit via GitHub PVR. The finding is well-supported with live PoC, code references, and clear root cause. The fix is straightforward (add validate_admin_request calls to event.rs handlers). Core submission should reference 2-3 focused PoC scripts (readonly bypass, target hijack, event exfil), not the full set of 13 exploratory scripts.

Koda Reef

Patch

This issue has been patched in version https://github.com/rustfs/rustfs/releases/tag/1.0.0-alpha.94.

References

• GHSA-pfcq-4gjr-6gjm
• https://github.com/rustfs/rustfs/releases/tag/1.0.0-alpha.94
• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-40937