CyberSecBulletin
CVE-2022-31214NVD status: Modified

Firejail: Improper Privilege Management

Published Updated By the CyberSecBulletin desk

CVE-2022-31214 is a high-severity improper privilege management vulnerability in Firejail from Firejail Project, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 out of 10. It can be exploited with local access to the system by an attacker with a low-privileged account, without any action from a user. Affected Firejail versions: 0.9.68. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.4% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.

Next patch cycle

High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.

What to do

  1. Check which version of Firejail you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
Firejail ProjectFirejail0.9.68Not stated
Fedora ProjectFedora35; 36; 37Not stated
DebianDebian Linux9.0; 10.0Not stated

Version data comes from NVD's product matching. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.

How the severity score breaks down

Attack vector
LocalThe attacker needs local access or must trick a user into running something.
Attack complexity
LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
Privileges required
LowA basic user account is enough.
User interaction
NoneNo action by a victim is required.
Scope
UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality
HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
Integrity
HighData or code can be modified at will.
Availability
HighThe component can be taken down completely.

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. Scored by NVD.

Scoring systemScoreSeverityScored by
CVSS 3.17.8HighNVD
CVSS 2.07.2HighNVD

Official description

A Privilege Context Switching issue was discovered in join.c in Firejail 0.9.68. By crafting a bogus Firejail container that is accepted by the Firejail setuid-root program as a join target, a local attacker can enter an environment in which the Linux user namespace is still the initial user namespace, the NO_NEW_PRIVS prctl is not activated, and the entered mount namespace is under the attacker's control. In this way, the filesystem layout can be adjusted to gain root privileges through execution of available setuid-root binaries such as su or sudo.

Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.

The underlying weakness: Improper Privilege Management

The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.

How developers prevent this class of flaw

  • Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
  • Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.
  • Consider following the principle of separation of privilege. Require multiple conditions to be met before permitting access to a system resource.

More Improper Privilege Management vulnerabilities (CWE-269)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Patches and release notes

Third-party and government advisories

Recent Improper Privilege Management vulnerabilities

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