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National Vulnerability Database

National Vulnerability Database

NVD

National Vulnerability Database
  1. Vulnerabilities
NOTICE UPDATE

NIST has updated the NVD program announcement page with additional information regarding recent concerns and the temporary delays in enrichment efforts.

CVE-2021-21261 Detail

Description

Flatpak is a system for building, distributing, and running sandboxed desktop applications on Linux. A bug was discovered in the `flatpak-portal` service that can allow sandboxed applications to execute arbitrary code on the host system (a sandbox escape). This sandbox-escape bug is present in versions from 0.11.4 and before fixed versions 1.8.5 and 1.10.0. The Flatpak portal D-Bus service (`flatpak-portal`, also known by its D-Bus service name `org.freedesktop.portal.Flatpak`) allows apps in a Flatpak sandbox to launch their own subprocesses in a new sandbox instance, either with the same security settings as the caller or with more restrictive security settings. For example, this is used in Flatpak-packaged web browsers such as Chromium to launch subprocesses that will process untrusted web content, and give those subprocesses a more restrictive sandbox than the browser itself. In vulnerable versions, the Flatpak portal service passes caller-specified environment variables to non-sandboxed processes on the host system, and in particular to the `flatpak run` command that is used to launch the new sandbox instance. A malicious or compromised Flatpak app could set environment variables that are trusted by the `flatpak run` command, and use them to execute arbitrary code that is not in a sandbox. As a workaround, this vulnerability can be mitigated by preventing the `flatpak-portal` service from starting, but that mitigation will prevent many Flatpak apps from working correctly. This is fixed in versions 1.8.5 and 1.10.0.


Severity

 


CVSS 3.x Severity and Metrics:

NIST CVSS score
NIST: NVD
Base Score:  8.8 HIGH
Vector:  CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Nist CVSS score does not match with CNA score
CNA:  GitHub, Inc.
Base Score:  7.3 HIGH
Vector:  CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N


NVD Analysts use publicly available information to associate vector strings and CVSS scores. We also display any CVSS information provided within the CVE List from the CNA.

Note: It is possible that the NVD CVSS may not match that of the CNA. The most common reason for this is that publicly available information does not provide sufficient detail or that information simply was not available at the time the CVSS vector string was assigned.

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

By selecting these links, you will be leaving NIST webspace. We have provided these links to other web sites because they may have information that would be of interest to you. No inferences should be drawn on account of other sites being referenced, or not, from this page. There may be other web sites that are more appropriate for your purpose. NIST does not necessarily endorse the views expressed, or concur with the facts presented on these sites. Further, NIST does not endorse any commercial products that may be mentioned on these sites. Please address comments about this page to nvd@nist.gov.

Hyperlink Resource
https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/commit/6d1773d2a54dde9b099043f07a2094a4f1c2f486 Patch  Third Party Advisory 
https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/commit/6e5ae7a109cdfa9735ea7ccbd8cb79f9e8d3ae8b Patch  Third Party Advisory 
https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/commit/aeb6a7ab0abaac4a8f4ad98b3df476d9de6b8bd4 Patch  Third Party Advisory 
https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/commit/cc1401043c075268ecc652eac557ef8076b5eaba Third Party Advisory 
https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/releases/tag/1.8.5 Third Party Advisory 
https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/security/advisories/GHSA-4ppf-fxf6-vxg2 Third Party Advisory 
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202101-21 Third Party Advisory 
https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4830 Third Party Advisory 

Weakness Enumeration

CWE-ID CWE Name Source
CWE-74 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component ('Injection') Provider acceptance level GitHub, Inc.  

Known Affected Software Configurations Switch to CPE 2.2

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Change History

5 change records found show changes

Quick Info

CVE Dictionary Entry:
CVE-2021-21261
NVD Published Date:
01/14/2021
NVD Last Modified:
01/27/2021
Source:
GitHub, Inc.