CVE-2024-41942

If a user is granted the admin:users scope, they may escalate their own privileges by making themselves a full admin user.

Details

The admin:users scope allows a user to edit user records:

admin:users

Read, write, create and delete users and their authentication state, not including their servers or tokens.

-- https://jupyterhub.readthedocs.io/en/stable/rbac/scopes.html#available-scopes

However, this includes making users admins. Admin users are granted scopes beyond admin:users making this a mechanism by which granted scopes may be escalated.

The impact is relatively small in that admin:users is already an extremely privileged scope only granted to trusted users.
In effect, admin:users is equivalent to admin=True, which is not intended.

Note that the change here only prevents escalation to the built-in JupyterHub admin role that has unrestricted permissions. It does not prevent users with e.g. groups permissions from granting themselves or other users permissions via group membership, which is intentional.

CVE-2024-41942 has a CVSS score of 7.2 (High). The vector is network-reachable, high privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (4.1.6, 5.1.0); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

1. What is CVE-2024-41942? CVE-2024-41942 is a high-severity security vulnerability in jupyterhub (pip), affecting versions < 4.1.6. It is fixed in 4.1.6, 5.1.0.
2. How severe is CVE-2024-41942? CVE-2024-41942 has a CVSS score of 7.2 (High). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
3. Which versions of jupyterhub are affected by CVE-2024-41942? jupyterhub (pip) versions < 4.1.6 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2024-41942? Yes. CVE-2024-41942 is fixed in 4.1.6, 5.1.0. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2024-41942 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2024-41942 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
6. What actually determines whether CVE-2024-41942 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
7. How do I fix CVE-2024-41942?
   • Upgrade jupyterhub to 4.1.6 or later
   • Upgrade jupyterhub to 5.1.0 or later