CVE-2022-3650 in ceph
Summary
by MITRE • 01/17/2023
A privilege escalation flaw was found in Ceph. Ceph-crash.service allows a local attacker to escalate privileges to root in the form of a crash dump, and dump privileged information.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/05/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-3650 represents a critical privilege escalation flaw within the Ceph storage system that affects local attackers who can exploit a specific service component. This vulnerability resides in the ceph-crash.service functionality which is designed to handle crash dumps and system failures within the Ceph distributed storage environment. The flaw allows an unprivileged local user to gain root privileges through the crash handling mechanism, creating a significant security risk that undermines the integrity of the entire storage infrastructure. The vulnerability stems from improper privilege management and inadequate access controls within the crash reporting service.
The technical implementation of this flaw involves the ceph-crash.service component which operates with elevated privileges to process crash information and system dumps. When a crash occurs within the Ceph environment, this service is responsible for collecting diagnostic information and managing the crash dump process. However, the service fails to properly validate or restrict the execution environment, allowing local users to manipulate the crash handling process to execute arbitrary code with root privileges. This typically occurs through the exploitation of insecure temporary file creation, improper privilege dropping mechanisms, or insufficient input validation within the crash processing pipeline. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-276, which addresses improper privilege management, and represents a classic case of privilege escalation through service misconfiguration.
The operational impact of CVE-2022-3650 extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as it provides attackers with complete control over the affected system. Once an attacker achieves root privileges through this vulnerability, they can access all system resources, modify critical configuration files, install backdoors, and extract sensitive data from the Ceph storage cluster. The crash dump functionality, which is intended to aid in debugging and system recovery, becomes a vector for malicious exploitation. This vulnerability particularly affects environments where Ceph is deployed with multiple users or where local access is not strictly controlled, as it requires only local user access to exploit. The impact is further amplified in cloud environments or shared hosting scenarios where multiple users may have access to the same system.
Security mitigations for this vulnerability should focus on immediate remediation through vendor-provided patches and updates that address the privilege escalation mechanism within ceph-crash.service. Organizations should implement strict access controls and privilege management policies to limit local user access to system components. The recommended approach includes disabling or restricting the crash service functionality when not actively needed, implementing proper file permissions and ownership controls for crash dump directories, and ensuring that the service properly drops privileges before processing crash information. Additionally, system administrators should monitor for unauthorized access attempts and implement intrusion detection systems to identify potential exploitation attempts. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability maps to privilege escalation techniques and should be monitored using techniques such as T1068 for local privilege escalation and T1078 for valid accounts. Regular security audits and vulnerability assessments should be conducted to identify similar privilege escalation vectors within the Ceph infrastructure and other system components.