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Partial Path Zip Slip in `org.hl7.fhir.core` due to bypass of CVE-2023-24057

Critical
dotasek published GHSA-9654-pr4f-gh6m Mar 10, 2023

Package

maven org.hl7.fhir.convertors (Maven)

Affected versions

< 5.6.106

Patched versions

5.6.106
maven org.hl7.fhir.core (Maven)
< 5.6.106
5.6.106
maven org.hl7.fhir.r4b (Maven)
< 5.6.106
5.6.106
maven org.hl7.fhir.r5 (Maven)
< 5.6.106
5.6.106
maven org.hl7.fhir.utilities (Maven)
< 5.6.106
5.6.106
maven org.hl7.fhir.validation (Maven)
< 5.6.106
5.6.106

Description

Impact

Zip Slip protections implemented in CVE-2023-24057 (GHSA-jqh6-9574-5x22) can be bypassed due a partial path traversal vulnerability.

This issue allows a malicious actor to potentially break out of the TerminologyCacheManager cache directory. The impact is limited to sibling directories.

To demonstrate the vulnerability, consider userControlled.getCanonicalPath().startsWith("/usr/out") will allow an attacker to access a directory with a name like /usr/outnot.

Why?

To demonstrate this vulnerability, consider "/usr/outnot".startsWith("/usr/out").
The check is bypassed although /outnot is not under the /out directory.
It's important to understand that the terminating slash may be removed when using various String representations of the File object.
For example, on Linux, println(new File("/var")) will print /var, but println(new File("/var", "/") will print /var/;
however, println(new File("/var", "/").getCanonicalPath()) will print /var.

The Fix

Comparing paths with the java.nio.files.Path#startsWith will adequately protect againts this vulnerability.

For example: file.getCanonicalFile().toPath().startsWith(BASE_DIRECTORY) or file.getCanonicalFile().toPath().startsWith(BASE_DIRECTORY_FILE.getCanonicalFile().toPath())

Other Examples

Vulnerability

for (ZipEntry ze; (ze = zipIn.getNextEntry()) != null; ) {
String path = Path.of(Utilities.path(targetDir, ze.getName())).normalize().toFile().getAbsolutePath();
if (!path.startsWith(targetDir)) {
// see: https://snyk.io/research/zip-slip-vulnerability
throw new RuntimeException("Entry with an illegal path: " + ze.getName());
}

While getAbsolutePath will return a normalized path, because the string path is not slash terminated, the guard can be bypassed to write the contents of the Zip file to a sibling directory of the cache directory.

Patches

All org.hl7.fhir.core libraries should be updated to 5.6.106.

Workarounds

Unknown

References

Severity

Critical

CVE ID

CVE-2023-28465

Weaknesses

Credits