# CVE-2025-8904: Privilege escalation issue in Amazon EMR Secret Agent component

Status: published. Published: 2025-08-13. Updated: 2026-11-04.

Amazon EMR Secret Agent creates a keytab file containing Kerberos credentials. This file is stored in the /tmp/ directory. A user with access to this directory and another account can potentially decrypt the keys and escalate to higher privileges. 



Users are advised to upgrade to Amazon EMR version 7.5 or higher. For Amazon EMR releases between 6.10 and 7.4, we strongly recommend that you run the bootstrap script and RPM files with the fix provided in the location below.

## Remediation

- fix: The reporting source identifies this reference as a patch. Check the advisory for affected versions and supported release branches. (source: CNA: AMZN) — https://docs.aws.amazon.com/emr/latest/ReleaseGuide/emr-750-release.html

## Affected products and versions

- Amazon / EMR: ≥ 6.10; < 7.4 (affected, semver). Source: CNA: AMZN

## Severity and prioritization

- CVSS 4.0: 9 (critical); CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H; source: CNA: AMZN

- CVSS 3.1: 8.5 (high); CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H; source: CNA: AMZN

- CISA KEV: No listing in collected sources

- EPSS: 0.39% as of 2026-11-03; percentile 32.80%

- SSVC: exploitation none; automatable no; technical impact total; source ADP: CISA-ADP

- Weaknesses: CWE-257

## Exploit evidence

No exploit evidence in collected sources. This is not proof of no exploitation.

## References

- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/emr/latest/ReleaseGuide/emr-750-release.html (CNA: AMZN; release-notes, patch)

- https://aws.amazon.com/security/security-bulletins/AWS-2025-017/ (CNA: AMZN; vendor-advisory)

- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-hf8h-76fm-735v (CNA: AMZN; third-party-advisory)

## Provenance

- CNA: AMZN: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-8904; retrieved 2026-11-04; source updated 2026-11-04

- FIRST EPSS: https://api.first.org/data/v1/epss?cve=CVE-2025-8904; retrieved 2026-11-03; source updated Not reported

Revision: c1632f0ea15a2bdf459c8b781068bd8f4595a9bff942ce129965bb16ea95572b

Canonical: https://y2.dev/cve/CVE-2025-8904

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