CVE-2018-18955 (published 2018-11-16T20:29Z)

In the Linux kernel 4.15.x through 4.19.x before 4.19.2, map_write() in kernel/user_namespace.c allows privilege escalation because it mishandles nested user namespaces with more than 5 UID or GID ranges. A user who has CAP_SYS_ADMIN in an affected user namespace can bypass access controls on resources outside the namespace, as demonstrated by reading /etc/shadow. This occurs because an ID transformation takes place properly for the namespaced-to-kernel direction but not for the kernel-to-namespaced direction.

Severity: MEDIUM
CVSS v2 base score: 4.4 (AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P)
CVSS v3 base score: 7.0, HIGH (CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)

Weakness information:
cwe_id: CWE-863
cwe_name: Incorrect Authorization
description: The product performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action, but it does not correctly perform the check. This allows attackers to bypass intended access restrictions.
extended_description: 
            Assuming a user with a given identity, authorization is the process of determining whether that user can access a given resource, based on the user's privileges and any permissions or other access-control specifications that apply to the resource.
            When access control checks are incorrectly applied, users are able to access data or perform actions that they should not be allowed to perform. This can lead to a wide range of problems, including information exposures, denial of service, and arbitrary code execution.
         
         

Fix information:
repo_url: https://github.com/torvalds/linux
commit_details: repo_url: https://github.com/torvalds/linux
author: Jann Horn
author_date: 2018-11-05 20:55:09+01:00
msg: userns: also map extents in the reverse map to kernel IDs

The current logic first clones the extent array and sorts both copies, then
maps the lower IDs of the forward mapping into the lower namespace, but
doesn't map the lower IDs of the reverse mapping.

This means that code in a nested user namespace with >5 extents will see
incorrect IDs. It also breaks some access checks, like
inode_owner_or_capable() and privileged_wrt_inode_uidgid(), so a process
can incorrectly appear to be capable relative to an inode.

To fix it, we have to make sure that the "lower_first" members of extents
in both arrays are translated; and we have to make sure that the reverse
map is sorted *after* the translation (since otherwise the translation can
break the sorting).

This is CVE-2018-18955.

Fixes: 6397fac4915a ("userns: bump idmap limits to 340")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Tested-by: Eric W. Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>
Reviewed-by: Eric W. Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>
Signed-off-by: Eric W. Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>
repository: repo_url: https://github.com/torvalds/linux
repo_name: torvalds/linux
description: Linux kernel source tree
repo_language: C
owner: torvalds
file_changes: filename: user_namespace.c
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -974,10 +974,6 @@ static ssize_t map_write(struct file *file, const char __user *buf,
 	if (!new_idmap_permitted(file, ns, cap_setid, &new_map))
 		goto out;
 
-	ret = sort_idmaps(&new_map);
-	if (ret < 0)
-		goto out;
-
 	ret = -EPERM;
 	/* Map the lower ids from the parent user namespace to the
 	 * kernel global id space.
@@ -1004,6 +1000,14 @@ static ssize_t map_write(struct file *file, const char __user *buf,
 		e->lower_first = lower_first;
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * If we want to use binary search for lookup, this clones the extent
+	 * array and sorts both copies.
+	 */
+	ret = sort_idmaps(&new_map);
+	if (ret < 0)
+		goto out;
+
 	/* Install the map */
 	if (new_map.nr_extents <= UID_GID_MAP_MAX_BASE_EXTENTS) {
 		memcpy(map->extent, new_map.extent,

programming_language: C