CVE-2022-36114: Cargo Cargo Extracting Malicious Crates Can Vulnerability

MODERATE
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-2hvr-h6gw-qrxp
CVSS 4.2
CWE-400
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2022-36114 is a MODERATE (CVSS 4.2) cargo extracting malicious crates can vulnerability (CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) affecting Cargo libraries in the crates.io ecosystem. The issue involves cargo extracting malicious crates can fill the file system. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 0.65.0, 0.67.0.

CVE-2022-36114 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2022-36114
GHSA Identifier GHSA-2hvr-h6gw-qrxp
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 4.2
CWE Classification CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Affected Product Cargo
Package Ecosystem crates.io
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 4.2

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity High (AC:H)
Privileges Required High (PR:H)
User Interaction Required (UI:R)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2022-36114

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Cargo dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

cargo fixed: 0.65.0
Upgrade cargo to 0.65.0
cargo fixed: 0.67.0
Upgrade cargo to 0.67.0
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release:

inspect dependencies for cargo

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2022-36114, inspect your project dependencies for Cargo:

inspect dependencies for cargo

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Cargo in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 0.65.0), your application is affected.

Note: Verify declared build manifests and deployed runtime container environments.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption, where the product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource. In Cargo, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

The Rust Security Response WG was notified that Cargo did not prevent extracting some malformed packages downloaded from alternate registries. An attacker able to upload packages to an alternate registry could fill the file system when Cargo downloaded the package. The severity of this vulnerability is "low" for users of alternate registries. Users relying on crates.io are not affected. Note that **by design** Cargo allows code execution at build time, due to build scripts and procedural macros. The vulnerabilities in this advisory allow performing a subset of the possible damage in a harder to track down way. Your dependencies must still be trusted if you want to be protected from attacks, as it's possible to perform the same attacks with build scripts and procedural macros. ## Disk space exaustion It was discovered that Cargo did not limit the amount of data extracted from compressed archives. An attacker could upload to an alternate registry a specially crafted package that extracts way more data than its size (also known as a "zip bomb"), exhausting the disk space on the machine using Cargo to download the package. ## Affected versions The vulnerability is present in all versions of Cargo. Rust 1.64, to be released on September 22nd, will include a fix for it. Since the vulnerability is just a more limited way to accomplish what a malicious build scripts or procedural macros can do, we decided not to publish Rust point releases backporting the security fix. Patch files are available for Rust 1.63.0 are available [in the wg-security-response repository][patches] for people building their own toolchain. ## Mitigations We recommend users of alternate registries to excercise care in which package they download, by only including trusted dependencies in their projects. Please note that even with these vulnerabilities fixed, by design Cargo allows arbitrary code execution at build time thanks to build scripts and procedural macros: a malicious dependency will be able to cause damage regardless of these vulnerabilities. crates.io implemented server-side checks to reject these kinds of packages years ago, and there are no packages on crates.io exploiting these vulnerabilities. crates.io users still need to excercise care in choosing their dependencies though, as the same concerns about build scripts and procedural macros apply here. ## Acknowledgements We want to thank Ori Hollander from JFrog Security Research for responsibly disclosing this to us according to the [Rust security policy][policy]. We also want to thank Josh Triplett for developing the fixes, Weihang Lo for developing the tests, and Pietro Albini for writing this advisory. The disclosure was coordinated by Pietro Albini and Josh Stone. [policy]: https://www.rust-lang.org/policies/security [patches]: https://github.com/rust-lang/wg-security-response/tree/master/patches

CVE-2022-36114 Affected Cargo Versions

2 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
0.65.00.67.0
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
cargo
crates.io
< 0.65.0
0.65.0
cargo
crates.io
≥ 0.66.0
< 0.67.0
All 1 versions
0.66.0
0.67.0

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2022-36114?
CVE-2022-36114 is a security vulnerability in Cargo involving Cargo extracting malicious crates can fill the file system under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption.
Which Cargo versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 0.65.0, 0.67.0 across affected packages: cargo.
What version fixes CVE-2022-36114?
Upgrading to 0.65.0, 0.67.0 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is cargo affected?
Yes, cargo is affected in releases prior to 0.65.0, 0.67.0. Upgrade your dependency to 0.65.0, 0.67.0 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2022-36114?
CVE-2022-36114 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.2 (MODERATE) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2022-36114?
CVE-2022-36114 is classified under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.).
How can I check crates.io dependencies for CVE-2022-36114?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for cargo'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-2hvr-h6gw-qrxp",
  "modified" : "2022-09-21T19:54:59Z",
  "published" : "2022-09-16T17:12:05Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2022-36114" ],
  "summary" : "Cargo extracting malicious crates can fill the file system",
  "details" : "The Rust Security Response WG was notified that Cargo did not prevent extracting some malformed packages downloaded from alternate registries. An attacker able to upload packages to an alternate registry could fill the file system when Cargo downloaded the package.\n\nThe severity of this vulnerability is \"low\" for users of alternate registries. Users relying on crates.io are not affected.\n\nNote that **by design** Cargo allows code execution at build time, due to build scripts and procedural macros. The vulnerabilities in this advisory allow performing a subset of the possible damage in a harder to track down way. Your dependencies must still be trusted if you want to be protected from attacks, as it's possible to perform the same attacks with build scripts and procedural macros.\n\n## Disk space exaustion\n\nIt was discovered that Cargo did not limit the amount of data extracted from compressed archives. An attacker could upload to an alternate registry a specially crafted package that extracts way more data than its size (also known as a \"zip bomb\"), exhausting the disk space on the machine using Cargo to download the package.\n\n## Affected versions\n\nThe vulnerability is present in all versions of Cargo. Rust 1.64, to be released on September 22nd, will include a fix for it.\n\nSince the vulnerability is just a more limited way to accomplish what a malicious build scripts or procedural macros can do, we decided not to publish Rust point releases backporting the security fix. Patch files are available for Rust 1.63.0 are available [in the wg-security-response repository][patches] for people building their own toolchain.\n\n## Mitigations\n\nWe recommend users of alternate registries to excercise care in which package they download, by only including trusted dependencies in their projects. Please note that even with these vulnerabilities fixed, by design Cargo allows arbitrary code execution at build time thanks to build scripts and procedural macros: a malicious dependency will be able to cause damage regardless of these vulnerabilities.\n\ncrates.io implemented server-side checks to reject these kinds of packages years ago, and there are no packages on crates.io exploiting these vulnerabilities. crates.io users still need to excercise care in choosing their dependencies though, as the same concerns about build scripts and procedural macros apply here.\n\n## Acknowledgements\n\nWe want to thank Ori Hollander from JFrog Security Research for responsibly disclosing this to us according to the [Rust security policy][policy].\n\nWe also want to thank Josh Triplett for developing the fixes, Weihang Lo for developing the tests, and Pietro Albini for writing this advisory. The disclosure was coordinated by Pietro Albini and Josh Stone.\n\n[policy]: https://www.rust-lang.org/policies/security\n[patches]: https://github.com/rust-lang/wg-security-response/tree/master/patches",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "crates.io",
      "name" : "cargo"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "0.65.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "crates.io",
      "name" : "cargo"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0.66.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "0.67.0"
      } ]
    } ],
    "versions" : [ "0.66.0" ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/security/advisories/GHSA-2hvr-h6gw-qrxp"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-36114"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/commit/2b68d3c07a4a056264dc006ecb9f1354a0679cd3"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/commit/d1f9553c825f6d7481453be8d58d0e7f117988a7"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/commit/d87d57dbbda61754f4fab0f329a7ac520e062c46"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202210-09"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-400" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2022-09-16T17:12:05Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2022-09-14T18:15:00Z"
  }
}