Privilege escalation in Salt

1) UNIX symbolic link following

EUVDB-ID: #VU82944

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 6.8 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-34049

CWE-ID: CWE-61 - UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following

Exploit availability: No

Description

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

The vulnerability exists due to a symlink following issue in Salt-SSH pre-flight option. A local user can create a specially crafted symbolic link to an empty file on the system, wait for the salt to create the file for further execution, update the symbolic link and point it to another file that is under attacker's control and execute the file with root privileges.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Salt: 3005 - 3006.3

External links

http://saltproject.io/security-announcements/2023-10-27-advisory/

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.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

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