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Improper path handling in kustomization files allows path traversal

Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published May 4, 2022 in fluxcd/flux2 • Updated Feb 1, 2023

Package

gomod github.com/fluxcd/flux2 (Go)

Affected versions

< 0.29.0

Patched versions

0.29.0
gomod github.com/fluxcd/kustomize-controller (Go)
< 0.24.0
0.24.0

Description

The kustomize-controller enables the use of Kustomize’s functionality when applying Kubernetes declarative state onto a cluster. A malicious user can use built-in features and a specially crafted kustomization.yaml to expose sensitive data from the controller’s pod filesystem. In multi-tenancy deployments this can lead to privilege escalation if the controller's service account has elevated permissions.

Within the affected versions, users with write access to a Flux source are able to use built-in features to expose sensitive data from the controller’s pod filesystem using a malicious kustomization.yaml file.

This vulnerability was fixed in kustomize-controller v0.24.0 and included in flux2 v0.29.0 released on 2022-04-20. The changes introduce a new Kustomize file system implementation which ensures that all files being handled are contained within the Kustomization working directory, blocking references to any files that do not meet that requirement.

Automated tooling (e.g. conftest) could be employed as a workaround, as part of a user's CI/CD pipeline to ensure that their kustomization.yaml files conform with specific policies, blocking access to sensitive path locations.

References

@hiddeco hiddeco published to fluxcd/flux2 May 4, 2022
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database May 4, 2022
Reviewed May 4, 2022
Published by the National Vulnerability Database May 6, 2022
Last updated Feb 1, 2023

Severity

Critical

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
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
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:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

0.128%
(48th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2022-24877

GHSA ID

GHSA-j77r-2fxf-5jrw

Source code

github.com/fluxcd/kustomize-controller

Credits

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