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Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')

CVE-2024-43402

Severity High
Score 8.1/10

Summary

Rust is a programming language. The fix for CVE-2024-24576, where `std::process::Command` incorrectly escaped arguments when invoking batch files on Windows, was incomplete. Prior to Rust version 1.81.0, it was possible to bypass the fix when the batch file name had trailing whitespace or periods (which are ignored and stripped by Windows). To determine whether to apply the `cmd.exe` escaping rules, the original fix for the vulnerability checked whether the command name ended with `.bat` or `.cmd`. At the time that seemed enough, as we refuse to invoke batch scripts with no file extension. Windows removes trailing whitespace and periods when parsing file paths. For example, `.bat. .` is interpreted by Windows as `.bat`, but the original fix didn't check for that. Affected users who are using Rust 1.77.2 or greater can remove the trailing whitespace (ASCII 0x20) and trailing periods (ASCII 0x2E) from the batch file name to bypass the incomplete fix and enable the mitigations. Users are affected if their code or one of their dependencies invoke a batch script on Windows with trailing whitespace or trailing periods in the name, and pass untrusted arguments to it. Rust 1.81.0 will update the standard library to apply the CVE-2024-24576 mitigations to all batch files invocations, regardless of the trailing chars in the file name.

  • HIGH
  • LOCAL
  • HIGH
  • CHANGED
  • NONE
  • NONE
  • HIGH
  • HIGH

CWE-78 - OS Command Injection

The OS command injection weakness (also known as shell injection) is a vulnerability which enables an attacker to run arbitrary OS commands on a server. This is done by modifying the intended downstream OS command and injecting arbitrary commands, enabling the execution of unauthorized OS commands. This has the potential to fully compromise the application along with all of its data, and, if the compromised process does not follow the principle of least privileges, it may compromise other parts of the hosting infrastructure as well. This weakness is listed as number ten in the 'CWE Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Weaknesses'.

References

Advisory Timeline

  • Published