CVE-2018-12028: Passenger Incorrect Access Control Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-jjhj-8gx7-x836
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CVSS 7.8
CWE-732
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2018-12028 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.8) incorrect access control vulnerability (CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource) affecting Passenger libraries in the RubyGems ecosystem. The issue involves incorrect access control in phusion passenger. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 5.3.2.

CVE-2018-12028 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2018-12028
GHSA Identifier GHSA-jjhj-8gx7-x836
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.8
CWE Classification CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
Affected Product Passenger
Package Ecosystem RubyGems
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 7.8

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

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

How to Fix CVE-2018-12028

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

passenger fixed: 5.3.2 
Upgrade passenger to 5.3.2
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 passenger

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2018-12028, inspect your project dependencies for Passenger:

inspect dependencies for passenger

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Passenger in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 5.3.2), 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-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource, where the product specifies permissions for a security-critical resource in a way that allows that resource to be read or modified by unintended actors. In Passenger, 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

An Incorrect Access Control vulnerability in SpawningKit in Phusion Passenger 5.3.x before 5.3.2 allows a Passenger-managed malicious application, upon spawning a child process, to report an arbitrary different PID back to Passenger's process manager. If the malicious application then generates an error, it would cause Passenger's process manager to kill said reported arbitrary PID.

CVE-2018-12028 Affected Passenger Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
5.3.2
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
passenger
gem/passenger
RubyGems
≥ 5.3.0
< 5.3.2
5.3.2

References

NVD — CVE-2018-12028 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-12028
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/phusion/passenger/commit/1e7c82deb4901c438f583737d8c9f2aac264737c
blog.phusion.nl/passenger-5-3-2 WEB
https://blog.phusion.nl/passenger-5-3-2
Passenger Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/phusion/passenger
Passenger Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/passenger/CVE-2018-12028.yml
Passenger Security Information SECURITY
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201807-02

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2018-12028?
CVE-2018-12028 is a security vulnerability in Passenger involving Incorrect Access Control in Phusion Passenger under CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource.
Which Passenger versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 5.3.2 across affected packages: passenger.
What version fixes CVE-2018-12028?
Upgrading to 5.3.2 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is passenger affected?
Yes, passenger is affected in releases prior to 5.3.2. Upgrade your dependency to 5.3.2 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2018-12028?
CVE-2018-12028 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2018-12028?
CVE-2018-12028 is classified under CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource (The product specifies permissions for a security-critical resource in a way that allows that resource to be read or modified by unintended actors.).
How can I check RubyGems dependencies for CVE-2018-12028?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for passenger'. 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
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-jjhj-8gx7-x836",
  "modified" : "2023-06-30T19:32:15Z",
  "published" : "2022-05-13T01:49:24Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2018-12028" ],
  "summary" : "Incorrect Access Control in Phusion Passenger",
  "details" : "An Incorrect Access Control vulnerability in SpawningKit in Phusion Passenger 5.3.x before 5.3.2 allows a Passenger-managed malicious application, upon spawning a child process, to report an arbitrary different PID back to Passenger's process manager. If the malicious application then generates an error, it would cause Passenger's process manager to kill said reported arbitrary PID.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "RubyGems",
      "name" : "passenger"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "5.3.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "5.3.2"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-12028"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/phusion/passenger/commit/1e7c82deb4901c438f583737d8c9f2aac264737c"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://blog.phusion.nl/passenger-5-3-2"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/phusion/passenger"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/passenger/CVE-2018-12028.yml"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201807-02"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-732" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2023-06-09T22:58:30Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2018-06-17T20:29:00Z"
  }
}