CVE-2020-7684 in rollup-plugin-serve
Summary
by MITRE
This affects all versions of package rollup-plugin-serve. There is no path sanitization in readFile operation.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/04/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2020-7684 resides within the rollup-plugin-serve package, a widely used tool for serving static files during development in web application workflows. This package operates as a Rollup plugin that provides a simple HTTP server for development environments, making it an integral component in many frontend build processes. The issue manifests in all versions of the package, indicating a fundamental flaw that has persisted across multiple releases and likely affects numerous development environments and CI/CD pipelines where this plugin is utilized.
The core technical flaw involves the absence of path sanitization during file read operations within the readFile functionality. This omission creates a directory traversal vulnerability that allows attackers to access files outside the intended directory scope. When the plugin processes file requests, it fails to properly validate or sanitize user-provided paths, enabling malicious actors to craft requests that traverse directory structures and access sensitive files that should remain protected. The vulnerability directly maps to CWE-22, which describes improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory, commonly known as directory traversal or path traversal attacks. This weakness specifically affects the input validation and sanitization mechanisms within the plugin's file handling code.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as it can enable attackers to access configuration files, source code, environment variables, and potentially sensitive data stored on the development server. In development environments, this often means unauthorized access to local files that may contain API keys, database credentials, or other sensitive information. The vulnerability is particularly concerning in continuous integration environments where developers might have elevated privileges or where the development server hosts multiple projects with varying security requirements. Attackers can exploit this weakness to gain insights into the application architecture, potentially leading to more severe consequences such as code injection or privilege escalation attacks. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this as a privilege escalation technique through path traversal, which can be leveraged to move laterally within the development infrastructure.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2020-7684 should focus on immediate remediation through package updates, as the maintainers have likely addressed the issue in newer releases. Organizations should implement strict input validation mechanisms that sanitize all file paths before processing, ensuring that any user-provided input undergoes proper validation to prevent directory traversal attempts. The solution involves implementing proper path normalization and restriction techniques that prevent access to parent directories using sequences like ../ or ..\ in file paths. Additionally, development teams should adopt security best practices such as running development servers with minimal privileges and implementing network segmentation to limit potential attack surface. Organizations should also consider implementing automated security scanning in their CI/CD pipelines to detect vulnerable dependencies and ensure that all development tools are kept up to date with the latest security patches. Regular security audits of development environments and dependency management practices should be implemented to prevent similar vulnerabilities from emerging in other components of the software supply chain.