CVE-2010-2237 in libvirt
Summary
by MITRE
Red Hat libvirt, possibly 0.6.1 through 0.8.2, looks up disk backing stores without referring to the user-defined main disk format, which might allow guest OS users to read arbitrary files on the host OS, and possibly have unspecified other impact, via unknown vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/23/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2010-2237 affects Red Hat libvirt virtualization management software within versions 0.6.1 through 0.8.2. This issue represents a critical security flaw that stems from improper handling of disk backing store lookups during virtual machine operations. The vulnerability creates a path for guest operating system users to potentially access arbitrary files on the host system, fundamentally compromising the isolation that virtualization environments are designed to maintain. The flaw specifically occurs when libvirt processes disk backing store information without properly validating or referencing the user-defined main disk format, creating an avenue for unauthorized data access.
The technical nature of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-22, which describes improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory, commonly known as path traversal attacks. In the context of virtualization, this manifests as insufficient validation of disk image paths and backing file references. When libvirt processes virtual machine disk configurations, it fails to properly enforce the boundaries of the intended disk format specifications, allowing guest users to manipulate the backing store resolution process. This misconfiguration enables attackers to craft malicious disk configurations that can cause the hypervisor to access files outside the intended virtual machine disk space, potentially leading to information disclosure and privilege escalation.
The operational impact of CVE-2010-2237 extends beyond simple file access, as it represents a fundamental breakdown in virtualization security boundaries. Attackers could potentially exploit this vulnerability to read sensitive system files, configuration data, or even other virtual machine disk images hosted on the same physical system. The unspecified other impacts mentioned in the description suggest that this vulnerability could potentially enable additional attack vectors including privilege escalation, denial of service, or further exploitation of the host system. This vulnerability particularly affects environments where multiple virtual machines share the same physical host, as the compromise of one guest could potentially impact others through the host system's file access patterns.
From a threat modeling perspective, this vulnerability maps to several ATT&CK techniques including T1059 for command and script execution, T1078 for valid accounts, and T1566 for credential access through exploitation of system vulnerabilities. The attack surface is particularly concerning in multi-tenant cloud environments or shared hosting scenarios where guest users might have limited access to the hypervisor but could leverage such vulnerabilities to escalate privileges and access other tenants' data. Organizations using libvirt versions within the affected range should consider this vulnerability as a critical risk to their virtualization infrastructure security posture.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2010-2237 primarily focus on immediate version upgrades to libvirt 0.8.3 or later, which contain the necessary patches to address the improper disk backing store lookup behavior. System administrators should also implement additional controls including strict disk image validation, monitoring of virtual machine disk configuration changes, and implementation of network segmentation to limit potential attack vectors. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper input validation and access control enforcement in virtualization management software, emphasizing that hypervisor security is critical to overall system security. Organizations should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments of their virtualization environments and implement proper monitoring to detect potential exploitation attempts of similar path traversal vulnerabilities in their infrastructure.