CVE-2023-51663

Hail authentication can be bypassed by changing email address

MEDIUM
5.3
CVSS Score
Published: December 29, 2023 at 04:53 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 06:41 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsHailHail

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Severity
MEDIUM5.3
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.4%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

Hail is an open-source, general-purpose, Python-based data analysis tool with additional data types and methods for working with genomic data. Hail relies on OpenID Connect (OIDC) email addresses from ID tokens to verify the validity of a user's domain, but because users have the ability to change their email address, they could create accounts and use resources in clusters that they should not have access to. For example, a user could create a Microsoft or Google account and then change their email to `[email protected]`. This account can then be used to create a Hail Batch account in Hail Batch clusters whose organization domain is `example.org`. The attacker is not able to access private data or impersonate another user, but they would have the ability to run jobs if Hail Batch billing projects are enabled and create Azure Tenants if they have Azure Active Directory Administrator access.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 0.2.127
Affected range stops below 0.2.127, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 0.2.127
Affected range stops below 0.2.127, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (1)

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

5.3MEDIUMGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
LOW
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-289

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