Bugzilla – Bug 1180996
VUL-0: CVE-2021-21261: flatpak: sandbox escape via spawn portal
Last modified: 2021-04-09 04:19:09 UTC
CVE-2021-21261 Flatpak is a system for building, distributing, and running sandboxed desktop applications on Linux. A bug was discovered in the `flatpak-portal` service that can allow sandboxed applications to execute arbitrary code on the host system (a sandbox escape). This sandbox-escape bug is present in versions from 0.11.4 and before fixed versions 1.8.5 and 1.9.4. The Flatpak portal D-Bus service (`flatpak-portal`, also known by its D-Bus service name `org.freedesktop.portal.Flatpak`) allows apps in a Flatpak sandbox to launch their own subprocesses in a new sandbox instance, either with the same security settings as the caller or with more restrictive security settings. For example, this is used in Flatpak-packaged web browsers such as Chromium to launch subprocesses that will process untrusted web content, and give those subprocesses a more restrictive sandbox than the browser itself. In vulnerable versions, the Flatpak portal service passes caller-specified environment variables to non-sandboxed processes on the host system, and in particular to the `flatpak run` command that is used to launch the new sandbox instance. A malicious or compromised Flatpak app could set environment variables that are trusted by the `flatpak run` command, and use them to execute arbitrary code that is not in a sandbox. As a workaround, this vulnerability can be mitigated by preventing the `flatpak-portal` service from starting, but that mitigation will prevent many Flatpak apps from working correctly. This is fixed in versions 1.8.5 and 1.9.4. References: http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2021-21261 http://www.debian.org/security/-1/dsa-4830 https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/commit/57416f380600d9754df12baf5b227144ff1bb54d https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/commit/6a11007021658518c088ba0cc5e4da27962a940a https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/commit/dcd24941c7087c5f7e8033abe50b178ac02a34af https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/commit/fb1eaefbceeb73f02eb1bc85865d74a414faf8b8 https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/releases/tag/1.8.5 https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/security/advisories/GHSA-4ppf-fxf6-vxg2 http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2021-21261
Tracked SLE15-SP1 and 15-SP2 as affected. Also Factory needs to be upgraded to 1.8.5
This is an autogenerated message for OBS integration: This bug (1180996) was mentioned in https://build.opensuse.org/request/show/866804 Factory / flatpak
SUSE-SU-2021:1094-1: An update that solves one vulnerability, contains one feature and has three fixes is now available. Category: security (important) Bug References: 1133120,1133124,1175899,1180996 CVE References: CVE-2021-21261 JIRA References: SLE-7171 Sources used: SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Desktop Applications 15-SP2 (src): flatpak-1.10.2-4.6.1, libostree-2020.8-3.3.2, xdg-desktop-portal-1.8.0-5.3.2, xdg-desktop-portal-gtk-1.8.0-3.3.1 SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15-SP2 (src): libostree-2020.8-3.3.2 NOTE: This line indicates an update has been released for the listed product(s). At times this might be only a partial fix. If you have questions please reach out to maintenance coordination.
openSUSE-SU-2021:0520-1: An update that solves one vulnerability and has three fixes is now available. Category: security (important) Bug References: 1133120,1133124,1175899,1180996 CVE References: CVE-2021-21261 JIRA References: Sources used: openSUSE Leap 15.2 (src): flatpak-1.10.2-lp152.3.6.1, libostree-2020.8-lp152.2.3.1, xdg-desktop-portal-1.8.0-lp152.4.3.1, xdg-desktop-portal-gtk-1.8.0-lp152.2.3.1