When starting Apache Solr versions prior to 8.8.2, configured with the SaslZkACLProvider or VMParamsAllAndReadonlyDigestZkACLProvider and no existing security.json znode, if the optional read-only user is configured then Solr would not treat that node as a sensitive path and would allow it to be readable. Additionally, with any ZkACLProvider, if the security.json is already present, Solr will not automatically update the ACLs.
The MITRE CVE dictionary describes this issue as:
When starting Apache Solr versions prior to 8.8.2, configured with the SaslZkACLProvider or VMParamsAllAndReadonlyDigestZkACLProvider and no existing security.json znode, if the optional read-only user is configured then Solr would not treat that node as a sensitive path and would allow it to be readable. Additionally, with any ZkACLProvider, if the security.json is already present, Solr will not automatically update the ACLs.