CVE-2023-36827: Ethyca fides Path Traversal Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-r25m-cr6v-p9hq
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CVSS 7.5
CWE-22
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2023-36827 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.5) path traversal vulnerability (CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')) affecting Ethyca fides libraries in the PyPI ecosystem. The issue involves ethyca-fides webserver api path traversal vulnerability. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 2.15.1.

CVE-2023-36827 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2023-36827
GHSA Identifier GHSA-r25m-cr6v-p9hq
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.5
CWE Classification CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
Affected Product Ethyca fides
Package Ecosystem PyPI
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 7.5

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

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

How to Fix CVE-2023-36827

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

ethyca-fides fixed: 2.15.1 
pip install ethyca-fides>=2.15.1
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

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

pip show ethyca-fides

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Python environment is affected by CVE-2023-36827, inspect your installed packages using pip:

pip show ethyca-fides

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Ethyca fides in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 2.15.1), your application is affected.

Note: The pip show ethyca-fides command checks currently installed packages in your active Python environment.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal'), where the product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. In Ethyca fides, 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

### Impact A path traversal (directory traversal) vulnerability affects fides versions lower than `2.15.1`, allowing remote attackers to access arbitrary files on the fides webserver container's filesystem. ### Patches The vulnerability is patched in fides `2.15.1`. Users should upgrade to this version. ### Workarounds If the Fides webserver API is not directly accessible to attackers and is instead deployed behind a reverse proxy as recommended in Ethyca's [security best practice documentation](https://docs.ethyca.com/docs/configuration/security-practices#reverse-proxy), and the reverse proxy is an AWS application load balancer, the vulnerability can't be exploited by these attackers. An AWS application load balancer will reject this attack with a 400 error. Additionally, any secrets supplied to the container using environment variables rather than a `fides.toml` configuration file are not affected by this vulnerability.

CVE-2023-36827 Affected Ethyca fides Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
2.15.1
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
ethyca-fides
pypi/ethyca-fides
PyPI
< 2.15.1
2.15.1

References

GitHub Advisory / Wiki ADVISORY
https://github.com/ethyca/fides/security/advisories/GHSA-r25m-cr6v-p9hq
NVD — CVE-2023-36827 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-36827
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/ethyca/fides/commit/f526d9ffb176006d701493c9d0eff6b4884e811f
Ethyca fides Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/ethyca/fides
Ethyca fides Release RELEASE
https://github.com/ethyca/fides/releases/tag/2.15.1
Ethyca fides Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/ethyca-fides/PYSEC-2023-107.yaml

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2023-36827?
CVE-2023-36827 is a security vulnerability in Ethyca fides involving ethyca-fides Webserver API Path Traversal vulnerability under CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal').
Which Ethyca fides versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 2.15.1 across affected packages: ethyca-fides.
What version fixes CVE-2023-36827?
Upgrading to 2.15.1 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is ethyca-fides affected?
Yes, ethyca-fides is affected in releases prior to 2.15.1. Upgrade your dependency to 2.15.1 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-36827?
CVE-2023-36827 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2023-36827?
CVE-2023-36827 is classified under CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') (The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.).
How can I check PyPI dependencies for CVE-2023-36827?
Run the dependency tree command: 'pip show ethyca-fides'. 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-r25m-cr6v-p9hq",
  "modified" : "2023-07-06T20:40:17Z",
  "published" : "2023-07-06T20:40:17Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2023-36827" ],
  "summary" : "ethyca-fides Webserver API Path Traversal vulnerability",
  "details" : "### Impact\nA path traversal (directory traversal) vulnerability affects fides versions lower than `2.15.1`, allowing remote attackers to access arbitrary files on the fides webserver container's filesystem.\n\n### Patches\nThe vulnerability is patched in fides `2.15.1`. Users should upgrade to this version.\n\n### Workarounds\nIf the Fides webserver API is not directly accessible to attackers and is instead deployed behind a reverse proxy as recommended in Ethyca's [security best practice documentation](https://docs.ethyca.com/docs/configuration/security-practices#reverse-proxy), and the reverse proxy is an AWS application load balancer, the vulnerability can't be exploited by these attackers. An AWS application load balancer will reject this attack with a 400 error.\n\nAdditionally, any secrets supplied to the container using environment variables rather than a `fides.toml` configuration file are not affected by this vulnerability.\n",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "PyPI",
      "name" : "ethyca-fides"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "2.15.1"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/ethyca/fides/security/advisories/GHSA-r25m-cr6v-p9hq"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-36827"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/ethyca/fides/commit/f526d9ffb176006d701493c9d0eff6b4884e811f"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/ethyca/fides"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/ethyca/fides/releases/tag/2.15.1"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/ethyca-fides/PYSEC-2023-107.yaml"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-22" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2023-07-06T20:40:17Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2023-07-05T22:15:10Z"
  }
}