CVE-2021-27851

Local privilege escalation in GNU Guix via guix-daemon and '--keep-failed'

Description

A security vulnerability that can lead to local privilege escalation has been found in ’guix-daemon’. It affects multi-user setups in which ’guix-daemon’ runs locally. The attack consists in having an unprivileged user spawn a build process, for instance with `guix build`, that makes its build directory world-writable. The user then creates a hardlink to a root-owned file such as /etc/shadow in that build directory. If the user passed the --keep-failed option and the build eventually fails, the daemon changes ownership of the whole build tree, including the hardlink, to the user. At that point, the user has write access to the target file. Versions after and including v0.11.0-3298-g2608e40988, and versions prior to v1.2.0-75109-g94f0312546 are vulnerable.

Categories

5.5
CVSS
Severity: Medium
CVSS 3.1 •
CVSS 2.0 •
EPSS 0.04%
Vendor Advisory gnu.org Vendor Advisory gnu.org
Affected: GNU Guix guix-daemon
Published at:
Updated at:

References

Link Tags
https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2021/risk-of-local-privilege-escalation-via-guix-daemon/ patch vendor advisory
https://bugs.gnu.org/47229 issue tracking mailing list patch vendor advisory

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the severity of CVE-2021-27851?
CVE-2021-27851 has been scored as a medium severity vulnerability.
How to fix CVE-2021-27851?
To fix CVE-2021-27851, make sure you are using an up-to-date version of the affected component(s) by checking the vendor release notes. As for now, there are no other specific guidelines available.
Is CVE-2021-27851 being actively exploited in the wild?
As for now, there are no information to confirm that CVE-2021-27851 is being actively exploited. According to its EPSS score, there is a ~0% probability that this vulnerability will be exploited by malicious actors in the next 30 days.
What software or system is affected by CVE-2021-27851?
CVE-2021-27851 affects GNU Guix guix-daemon.
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