Improper privilege management in Apptainer

1) Improper Privilege Management

EUVDB-ID: #VU79801

Risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 1.1 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-38496

CWE-ID: CWE-269 - Improper Privilege Management

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to escalate privileges on the system.

The vulnerability exists due to application contains an ineffective privilege drop when requesting container network setup. A local user can delete any directory on the host filesystems.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Apptainer: 1.2.0

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:a:apptainer:apptainer:1.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

External links

https://github.com/apptainer/apptainer/security/advisories/GHSA-mmx5-32m4-wxvx
https://github.com/apptainer/apptainer/pull/1523
https://github.com/apptainer/apptainer/pull/1578

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

How the attacker can exploit this vulnerability?

The attacker would have to trick the victim to open a a specially crafted file.

The attacker would have to login to the system and perform certain actions in order to exploit this vulnerability.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.