Input validation error in Python - CVE-2019-17514
Published: October 12, 2019 / Updated: August 8, 2020
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote non-authenticated attacker to manipulate data.
library/glob.html in the Python 2 and 3 documentation before 2016 has potentially misleading information about whether sorting occurs, as demonstrated by irreproducible cancer-research results. NOTE: the effects of this documentation cross application domains, and thus it is likely that security-relevant code elsewhere is affected. This issue is not a Python implementation bug, and there are no reports that NMR researchers were specifically relying on library/glob.html. In other words, because the older documentation stated "finds all the pathnames matching a specified pattern according to the rules used by the Unix shell," one might have incorrectly inferred that the sorting that occurs in a Unix shell also occurred for glob.glob. There is a workaround in newer versions of Willoughby nmr-data_compilation-p2.py and nmr-data_compilation-p3.py, which call sort() directly.
Affected software
Ubuntu
python3.6 (Ubuntu package)
python3.9-minimal (Ubuntu package)
python3.9 (Ubuntu package)
python3.8-minimal (Ubuntu package)
python3.6-minimal (Ubuntu package)
python3.8 (Ubuntu package)
python3.11 (Ubuntu package)
python3.7 (Ubuntu package)
python3.11-minimal (Ubuntu package)
python3.7-minimal (Ubuntu package)
python3.5-minimal (Ubuntu package)
python3.5 (Ubuntu package)
python2.7-minimal (Ubuntu package)
python2.7 (Ubuntu package)
python3.4-minimal (Ubuntu package)
python3.4 (Ubuntu package)
python3.10 (Ubuntu package)
python3.10-minimal (Ubuntu package)
python3.12 (Ubuntu package)
python3.12-minimal (Ubuntu package)
How to mitigate CVE-2019-17514
python3.9-minimal (Ubuntu package) - update to Ubuntu Pro
python3.9 (Ubuntu package) - update to Ubuntu Pro
python3.8-minimal (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions Ubuntu Pro, 3.8.0-3~18.04.1, 3.8.2-1ubuntu1.2, 3.8.10-0ubuntu1~20.04.10
python3.6-minimal (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions Ubuntu Pro, 3.6.9-1~18.04ubuntu1.12
python3.8 (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions Ubuntu Pro, 3.8.0-3~18.04.1, 3.8.2-1ubuntu1.2, 3.8.10-0ubuntu1~20.04.10
python3.11 (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions Ubuntu Pro, 3.11.6-3ubuntu0.1
python3.7 (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions Ubuntu Pro, 3.7.5-2~18.04.4
python3.11-minimal (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions Ubuntu Pro, 3.11.6-3ubuntu0.1
python3.7-minimal (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions Ubuntu Pro, 3.7.5-2~18.04.4
python3.5-minimal (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions Ubuntu Pro, 3.5.2-2ubuntu0~16.04.11
python3.5 (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions Ubuntu Pro (Infra-only), 3.5.2-2ubuntu0~16.04.11
python2.7-minimal (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions 2.7.3-0ubuntu3.18, 2.7.6-8ubuntu0.6+esm6, 2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.12, 2.7.17-1~18.04ubuntu1.11, 2.7.18-1~20.04.1
python2.7 (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions 2.7.3-0ubuntu3.18, 2.7.6-8ubuntu0.6+esm6, 2.7.12-1ubuntu0~16.04.12, 2.7.17-1~18.04ubuntu1.11, 2.7.18-1~20.04.1
python3.4-minimal (Ubuntu package) - update to 3.4.3-1ubuntu1~14.04.7+esm7
python3.4 (Ubuntu package) - update to 3.4.3-1ubuntu1~14.04.7+esm7
python3.10 (Ubuntu package) - update to 3.10.12-1~22.04.4
python3.10-minimal (Ubuntu package) - update to 3.10.12-1~22.04.4
python3.12 (Ubuntu package) - update to 3.12.0-1ubuntu0.1
python3.12-minimal (Ubuntu package) - update to 3.12.0-1ubuntu0.1
External References
- https://bugs.python.org/issue33275
- https://github.com/bminor/bash/blob/ac50fbac377e32b98d2de396f016ea81e8ee9961/pathexp.c#L380
- https://github.com/bminor/bash/blob/ac50fbac377e32b98d2de396f016ea81e8ee9961/pathexp.c#L405
- https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.orglett.9b03216
- https://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/acs.orglett.9b03216/suppl_file/ol9b03216_si_002.zip
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20191107-0005/
- https://twitter.com/chris_bloke/status/1181997278136958976
- https://twitter.com/LucasCMoore/status/1181615421922824192
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4428-1/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20150822013622/
- https://docs.python.org/3/library/glob.html
- https://web.archive.org/web/20150906020027/
- https://docs.python.org/2.7/library/glob.html
- https://web.archive.org/web/20160309211341/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20160526201356/
- https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zmjwda/a-code-glitch-may-have-caused-errors-in-more-than-100-published-studies