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containerd CRI stream server vulnerable to host memory exhaustion via terminal

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Dec 7, 2022 in containerd/containerd • Updated Jan 31, 2024

Package

gomod github.com/containerd/containerd (Go)

Affected versions

< 1.5.16
>= 1.6.0, < 1.6.12

Patched versions

1.5.16
1.6.12

Description

Impact

A bug was found in containerd's CRI implementation where a user can exhaust memory on the host. In the CRI stream server, a goroutine is launched to handle terminal resize events if a TTY is requested. If the user's process fails to launch due to, for example, a faulty command, the goroutine will be stuck waiting to send without a receiver, resulting in a memory leak. Kubernetes and crictl can both be configured to use containerd's CRI implementation and the stream server is used for handling container IO.

Patches

This bug has been fixed in containerd 1.6.12 and 1.5.16. Users should update to these versions to resolve the issue.

Workarounds

Ensure that only trusted images and commands are used and that only trusted users have permissions to execute commands in running containers.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

To report a security issue in containerd:

References

@samuelkarp samuelkarp published to containerd/containerd Dec 7, 2022
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Dec 7, 2022
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Dec 7, 2022
Reviewed Dec 7, 2022
Last updated Jan 31, 2024

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

0.097%
(41st percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2022-23471

GHSA ID

GHSA-2qjp-425j-52j9

Source code

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