GHSA-cr5q-6q9f-rq6q CVE-2023-38037
Active Support Possibly Discloses Locally Encrypted Files
- Severity
- 5.5 / 10
- Medium · CVSS 3.0
- Exploit chance (EPSS)
- 0.27%
- Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 19.86% of scored vulnerabilities.
- Known exploited
- No
- Not in CISA's catalog
- Weakness
- CWE-377 Insecure Temporary File
- CWE-732 Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
- Fix
6.1.7.5- Upgrade activesupport to this version or later
Description
There is a possible file disclosure of locally encrypted files in Active Support. This vulnerability has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2023-38037.
Versions Affected: >= 5.2.0 Not affected: < 5.2.0 Fixed Versions: 7.0.7.1, 6.1.7.5
Impact
ActiveSupport::EncryptedFile writes contents that will be encrypted to a temporary file. The temporary file’s permissions are defaulted to the user’s current umask settings, meaning that it’s possible for other users on the same system to read the contents of the temporary file.
Attackers that have access to the file system could possibly read the contents of this temporary file while a user is editing it.
All users running an affected release should either upgrade or use one of the workarounds immediately.
Releases
The fixed releases are available at the normal locations.
Workarounds
To work around this issue, you can set your umask to be more restrictive like this:
$ umask 0077
Affected versions
RubyGems
| Package | Vulnerable | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| activesupport | >= 5.2.0, < 6.1.7.5 |
6.1.7.5 |
| activesupport | >= 7.0.0, < 7.0.7.1 |
7.0.7.1 |
How to fix
Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.
activesupport RubyGems → 6.1.7.5
- bundler
bundle update activesupport # Gemfile: gem "activesupport", ">= 6.1.7.5"
Severity breakdown
CVSS 3.0 5.5
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L
- Attack vector
- Local
- Attack complexity
- High
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- Low
Weakness
CWE-377: Insecure Temporary File
Creating and using insecure temporary files can leave application and system data vulnerable to attack.
CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
The product specifies permissions for a security-critical resource in a way that allows that resource to be read or modified by unintended actors.
How to prevent it
- Implementation: When using a critical resource such as a configuration file, check to see if the resource has insecure permissions (such as being modifiable by any regular user) [REF-62], and generate an error or even exit the software if there is a possibility that the resource could have been modified by an unauthorized party.
- Architecture and Design: Divide the software into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully defining distinct user groups, privileges, and/or roles. Map these against data, functionality, and the related resources. Then set the permissions accordingly. This will allow you to maintain more fine-grained control over your resources. [REF-207]
- Architecture and Design, Operation: Run the code in a "jail" or similar sandbox environment that enforces strict boundaries between the process and the operating system. This may effectively restrict which files can be accessed in a particular directory or which commands can be executed by the software. OS-level examples include the Unix chroot jail, AppArmor, and SELinux. In general, managed code may provide some protection. For example, java.io.FilePermission in the Java SecurityManager allows the software to specify restrictions on file operations. This may not be a feasible solution, and it only limits the impact to the operating system; the rest of the application may still be subject to compromise. Be careful to avoid CWE-243 and other weaknesses related to jails.
- Implementation, Installation: During program startup, explicitly set the default permissions or umask to the most restrictive setting possible. Also set the appropriate permissions during program installation. This will prevent you from inheriting insecure permissions from any user who installs or runs the program.
- System Configuration: For all configuration files, executables, and libraries, make sure that they are only readable and writable by the software's administrator.
- Documentation: Do not suggest insecure configuration changes in documentation, especially if those configurations can extend to resources and other programs that are outside the scope of the application.
- Installation: Do not assume that a system administrator will manually change the configuration to the settings that are recommended in the software's manual.
- Operation, System Configuration: Ensure that the software runs properly under the United States Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB) [REF-199] or an equivalent hardening configuration guide, which many organizations use to limit the attack surface and potential risk of deployed software.
- Implementation, System Configuration, Operation: When storing data in the cloud (e.g., S3 buckets, Azure blobs, Google Cloud Storage, etc.), use the provider's controls to disable public access.
References
Advisories
Packages
Other links
- github.com/rails/rails/commit/a21d6edf35a60383dfa6c4da49e4b1aef5f00731
- discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/cve-2023-38037-possible-file-disclosure-of-locally-encrypted-files…
- github.com/rails/rails/releases/tag/v7.0.7.1
- github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/activesupport/CVE-2023-380…
- security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20250214-0010
- security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20250214-0010
Timeline
- Published
- Last updated by the source
- Latest EPSS score
Related advisories
| Advisory | Severity | Why it's related |
|---|---|---|
| GHSA-2j26-frm8-cmj9 Rails Active Support has a possible DoS vulnerability in its number helpers | High | Also affects activesupport |
| GHSA-89vf-4333-qx8v Rails Active Support has a possible XSS vulnerability in SafeBuffer#% | Medium | Also affects activesupport |
| GHSA-cg4j-q9v8-6v38 Rails Active Support has a possible ReDoS vulnerability in number_to_delimited | Medium | Also affects activesupport |
| GHSA-pj73-v5mw-pm9j Possible XSS Security Vulnerability in SafeBuffer#bytesplice | Medium | Also affects activesupport |
| GHSA-j6gc-792m-qgm2 ReDoS based DoS vulnerability in Active Support's underscore | Low | Also affects activesupport |
| GHSA-2p68-f74v-9wc6 ActiveSupport potentially unintended unmarshalling of user-provided objects in MemCacheStore and RedisCacheStore | Critical | Also affects activesupport |
| GHSA-qv8p-v9qw-wc7g activesupport Cross-site Scripting vulnerability | Medium | Also affects activesupport |
| GHSA-9fh3-vh3h-q4g3 activesupport Cross-site Scripting vulnerability | Medium | Also affects activesupport |
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