Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from GitHub Advisory · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorGitHub Advisory
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionGitHub Advisory
RustFS is a distributed object storage system built in Rust. Prior to 1.0.0-beta.2, the internode RPC layer authenticates every request with an HMAC-SHA256 signature using a shared secret. The function that produces this secret, get_shared_secret() in crates/ecstore/src/rpc/http_auth.rs, falls back to the public, source-tree-embedded DEFAULT_SECRET_KEY = "rustfsadmin" when neither the RUSTFS_RPC_SECRET environment variable nor the global S3 secret key has been configured. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.0.0-beta.2.
AnalysisAI
Authentication bypass in RustFS distributed object storage (versions prior to 1.0.0-beta.2) allows unauthenticated remote attackers to forge valid internode RPC requests by exploiting a hardcoded fallback secret 'rustfsadmin' used when neither RUSTFS_RPC_SECRET nor the global S3 secret key is configured. With a CVSS of 9.8 and full CIA impact, this represents a critical pre-auth compromise vector against the storage cluster's internal trust boundary. No public exploit identified at time of analysis, though the fallback secret is publicly visible in the source tree, making weaponization trivial.
Technical ContextAI
RustFS is a Rust-implemented distributed object storage system providing an S3-compatible interface, where cluster nodes communicate over an internode RPC layer authenticated via HMAC-SHA256 signatures derived from a shared secret. The flaw resides in get_shared_secret() within crates/ecstore/src/rpc/http_auth.rs, which falls back to the constant DEFAULT_SECRET_KEY = 'rustfsadmin' embedded directly in the source tree when neither the RUSTFS_RPC_SECRET environment variable nor a global S3 secret key has been provisioned. This pattern aligns with CWE-798 (Use of Hard-coded Credentials): because the fallback value is publicly known to anyone who reads the open-source repository, the HMAC signature scheme collapses into a trivially forgeable authentication mechanism for any operator who did not explicitly configure a secret.
RemediationAI
Upgrade RustFS to 1.0.0-beta.2 or later, which removes the insecure fallback in get_shared_secret() - this is the vendor-released patch and the primary remediation, documented at https://github.com/rustfs/rustfs/security/advisories/GHSA-r5qv-rc46-hv8q. As an interim workaround for operators who cannot immediately upgrade, explicitly set the RUSTFS_RPC_SECRET environment variable (or configure a non-default global S3 secret key) to a strong random value on every node so the vulnerable fallback path is never taken; verify configuration by confirming that 'rustfsadmin' does not appear in any runtime secret material. Additionally, restrict network exposure of the internode RPC endpoints to a private management network or firewall them off from untrusted networks, accepting the side effect that this complicates multi-region or multi-tenant topologies that may rely on broader reachability.
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RustFS is a distributed object storage system built in Rust. [CVSS 4.0 MEDIUM]
Same weakness CWE-798 – Use of Hard-coded Credentials
View allSame technique Authentication Bypass
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External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-32998