Missing advisory for CVE-2023-52251 (provectus/kafka-ui) — 447M-pull image with an unpatched RCE and no matchable entry anywhere

Inizia esaminando le voci di advisory esistenti, sia esaminate che non esaminate, e la GitHub Advisory Database API, quindi confronta i relativi campi dell’ecosistema supportato e del pacchetto interessato con i dettagli dell’immagine Docker in questa issue. Controlla SECURITY.md e le evidenze referenziate di MessageFilters.java, incluso l’intervallo >= 0.4.0 e <= 0.7.2. Il lavoro è completato quando il repository ha deciso se questo artefatto non supportato può essere rappresentato e, in caso affermativo, ha accettato i dati dell’advisory nello schema previsto.

CVE-2023-52251 (CVSS 3.1 8.8 HIGH, published 2024-01-25) has no entry in the GitHub
Advisory Database. I checked all three types via the API — reviewed, unreviewed and
malware all return zero hits for this CVE ID.

It is a remote code execution issue in provectus/kafka-ui: the "smart filter" evaluates
attacker-supplied Groovy via the q parameter of
/api/clusters/local/topics/{topic}/messages. A public exploit exists.

Why I think this one is worth carrying even though it is not a package:

• The affected artifact is the Docker image provectuslabs/kafka-ui, with
  447,220,745 pulls and Docker Hub status active.
• The repository has 12,278 stars and 1,411 forks and is not archived, with no commit
  since 2024-04-08.
• Its own SECURITY.md still claims 0.7.x is "currently being supported with security
  updates".
• No other database produces a matchable entry either: the MITRE record has
  vendor/product/version = n/a, NVD derives only
  cpe:2.3:a:provectus:ui:*:*:*:*:*:kafka:*:* with no version boundaries, and the OSV
  entry has an empty package field. So Dependabot, Docker Scout, Trivy and Grype are all
  silent on it.
• It is exploited in the wild. An operator running provectuslabs/kafka-ui:latest exposed
  without authentication had the container used to mine cryptocurrency for about 1.5 days,
  resulting in a hosting-provider abuse report.

Correct affected data (measured 2026-09-08): >= 0.4.0, <= 0.7.2, no patched version.
Note this differs from NVD, which stops at 0.7.1 — v0.7.2 ships the identical vulnerable
MessageFilters.java (98 lines, GroovyScriptEngineImpl, case GROOVY_SCRIPT) and was
released 2024-04-10, after the CVE. :latest and :v0.7.2 share the digest
sha256:8f2ff02d64b0a7a2b71b6b3b3148b85f66d00ec20ad40c30bdcd415d46d31818.

The fix exists only in the fork kafbat/kafka-ui (commit 11a57d14, 2024-02-10, released
in v1.0.0), which renamed the package namespace from com.provectus.kafka.ui to
io.kafbat.ui — a migration to a different artifact, not an upgrade path.

Two asks:

1. Carry the CVE as an unreviewed advisory so it is at least visible and searchable in the
   database.
2. Consider this a data point for container-image coverage. I understand OCI images are
   outside the 12 supported ecosystems today. This case shows the gap has a concrete
   consequence: an image with 447M pulls, a known 8.8 RCE, an unmaintained upstream, and
   no tooling anywhere that flags it.

I have reported the empty OSV entry separately (google/osv.dev#5988), and a CVE update
request to MITRE to populate the structured affected fields is being submitted in
parallel — that record is the upstream cause, since it was published with
vendor/product/version all set to n/a.

Happy to open a PR here with advisory data in whichever schema you prefer, if that is
useful.