Pivotal Spring Boot up to 1.5.9/2.0.0.M7 link following

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as critical has been discovered in Pivotal Spring Boot up to 1.5.9/2.0.0.M7. The affected element is an unknown function. The manipulation results in link following. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2018-1196. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. No exploit is available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Pivotal Spring Boot up to 1.5.9/2.0.0.M7. Affected is an unknown functionality. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a link following vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-59. The product attempts to access a file based on the filename, but it does not properly prevent that filename from identifying a link or shortcut that resolves to an unintended resource. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

Spring Boot supports an embedded launch script that can be used to easily run the application as a systemd or init.d linux service. The script included with Spring Boot 1.5.9 and earlier and 2.0.0.M1 through 2.0.0.M7 is susceptible to a symlink attack which allows the "run_user" to overwrite and take ownership of any file on the same system. In order to instigate the attack, the application must be installed as a service and the "run_user" requires shell access to the server. Spring Boot application that are not installed as a service, or are not using the embedded launch script are not susceptible.

The bug was discovered 01/30/2018. The weakness was published 03/19/2018 (Website). The advisory is shared for download at pivotal.io. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2018-1196 since 12/06/2017. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. The exploitation doesn't require any form of authentication. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available.

The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 48 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $0-$5k.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• Pivotal

Name

• Spring Boot

Version

• 1.5.0
• 1.5.1
• 1.5.2
• 1.5.3
• 1.5.4
• 1.5.5
• 1.5.6
• 1.5.7
• 1.5.8
• 1.5.9
• 2.0.0.M7

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://pivotal.io/

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Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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