CVE-2018-12615: Passenger Phusion Passenger Incorrect Permission Assignment Vulnerability

MODERATE
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-4284-jfhc-f854
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CVSS 5.3
CWE-732
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2018-12615 is a MODERATE (CVSS 5.3) phusion passenger incorrect permission assignment vulnerability (CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource) affecting Passenger libraries in the RubyGems ecosystem. The issue involves phusion passenger incorrect permission assignment. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 5.3.2.

CVE-2018-12615 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2018-12615
GHSA Identifier GHSA-4284-jfhc-f854
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 5.3
CWE Classification CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
Affected Product Passenger
Package Ecosystem RubyGems
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 5.3

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/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 None (C:N)
Integrity Low (I:L)
Availability None (A:N)

How to Fix CVE-2018-12615

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-2018-12615, 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 issue was discovered in switchGroup() in agent/ExecHelper/ExecHelperMain.cpp in Phusion Passenger before 5.3.2. The set of groups (gidset) is not set correctly, leaving it up to randomness (i.e., uninitialized memory) which supplementary groups are actually being set while lowering privileges.

CVE-2018-12615 Affected Passenger Versions

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

References

NVD — CVE-2018-12615 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-12615
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/phusion/passenger/commit/4e97fdb86d0a0141ec9a052c6e691fcd07bb45c8
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-2018-12615.yml

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2018-12615?
CVE-2018-12615 is a security vulnerability in Passenger involving Phusion Passenger incorrect permission assignment 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-2018-12615?
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-2018-12615?
CVE-2018-12615 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.3 (MODERATE) with vector string CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2018-12615?
CVE-2018-12615 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-2018-12615?
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-4284-jfhc-f854",
  "modified" : "2022-06-17T21:28:23Z",
  "published" : "2022-05-13T01:49:37Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2018-12615" ],
  "summary" : "Phusion Passenger incorrect permission assignment",
  "details" : "An issue was discovered in switchGroup() in agent/ExecHelper/ExecHelperMain.cpp in Phusion Passenger before 5.3.2. The set of groups (gidset) is not set correctly, leaving it up to randomness (i.e., uninitialized memory) which supplementary groups are actually being set while lowering privileges.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "RubyGems",
      "name" : "passenger"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "5.3.2"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-12615"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/phusion/passenger/commit/4e97fdb86d0a0141ec9a052c6e691fcd07bb45c8"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/phusion/passenger"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/passenger/CVE-2018-12615.yml"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-732" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2022-06-17T21:28:23Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2018-06-21T15:29:00Z"
  }
}