CVE-2023-49797 (GCVE-0-2023-49797)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2023-12-09 00:42 – Updated: 2025-02-13 17:18
VLAI
Title
Local Privilege Escalation in pyinstaller on Windows
Summary
PyInstaller bundles a Python application and all its dependencies into a single package. A PyInstaller built application, elevated as a privileged process, may be tricked by an unprivileged attacker into deleting files the unprivileged user does not otherwise have access to. A user is affected if **all** the following are satisfied: 1. The user runs an application containing either `matplotlib` or `win32com`. 2. The application is ran as administrator (or at least a user with higher privileges than the attacker). 3. The user's temporary directory is not locked to that specific user (most likely due to `TMP`/`TEMP` environment variables pointing to an unprotected, arbitrary, non default location). Either: A. The attacker is able to very carefully time the replacement of a temporary file with a symlink. This switch must occur exactly between `shutil.rmtree()`'s builtin symlink check and the deletion itself B: The application was built with Python 3.7.x or earlier which has no protection against Directory Junctions links. The vulnerability has been addressed in PR #7827 which corresponds to `pyinstaller >= 5.13.1`. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
Severity
8.8 (High)
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE
  • CWE-379 - Creation of Temporary File in Directory with Insecure Permissions
  • CWE-732 - Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
Assigner
GitHub_M CNA
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version
pyinstaller pyinstaller Affected: < 5.13.1
Create a notification for this product.
Show details on NVD website
To clipboard 

{
  "containers": {
    "adp": [
      {
        "providerMetadata": {
          "dateUpdated": "2024-08-02T22:01:26.027Z",
          "orgId": "af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108",
          "shortName": "CVE"
        },
        "references": [
          {
            "name": "https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/security/advisories/GHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5",
            "tags": [
              "x_refsource_CONFIRM",
              "x_transferred"
            ],
            "url": "https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/security/advisories/GHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5"
          },
          {
            "name": "https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/pull/7827",
            "tags": [
              "x_refsource_MISC",
              "x_transferred"
            ],
            "url": "https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/pull/7827"
          },
          {
            "name": "https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/0fb18b02c8ad56299d6a2910be0bab8ad601ef24/Lib/shutil.py#L623",
            "tags": [
              "x_refsource_MISC",
              "x_transferred"
            ],
            "url": "https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/0fb18b02c8ad56299d6a2910be0bab8ad601ef24/Lib/shutil.py#L623"
          },
          {
            "tags": [
              "x_transferred"
            ],
            "url": "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/ISRWT34FAF23PUOLVZ7RVWBZMWPDR5U7/"
          },
          {
            "tags": [
              "x_transferred"
            ],
            "url": "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2K2XIQLEMZIKUQUOWNDYWTEWYQTKMAN7/"
          }
        ],
        "title": "CVE Program Container"
      }
    ],
    "cna": {
      "affected": [
        {
          "product": "pyinstaller",
          "vendor": "pyinstaller",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "\u003c 5.13.1"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "descriptions": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "PyInstaller bundles a Python application and all its dependencies into a single package. A PyInstaller built application, elevated as a privileged process, may be tricked by an unprivileged attacker into deleting files the unprivileged user does not otherwise have access to. A user is affected if **all** the following are satisfied: 1. The user runs an application containing either `matplotlib` or `win32com`. 2. The application is ran as administrator (or at least a user with higher privileges than the attacker). 3. The user\u0027s temporary directory is not locked to that specific user (most likely due to `TMP`/`TEMP` environment variables pointing to an unprotected, arbitrary, non default location). Either: A. The attacker is able to very carefully time the replacement of a temporary file with a symlink. This switch must occur exactly between `shutil.rmtree()`\u0027s builtin symlink check and the deletion itself B: The application was built with Python 3.7.x or earlier which has no protection against Directory Junctions links. The vulnerability has been addressed in PR #7827 which corresponds to `pyinstaller \u003e= 5.13.1`. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability."
        }
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "cvssV3_1": {
            "attackComplexity": "LOW",
            "attackVector": "LOCAL",
            "availabilityImpact": "HIGH",
            "baseScore": 8.8,
            "baseSeverity": "HIGH",
            "confidentialityImpact": "HIGH",
            "integrityImpact": "HIGH",
            "privilegesRequired": "LOW",
            "scope": "CHANGED",
            "userInteraction": "NONE",
            "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H",
            "version": "3.1"
          }
        }
      ],
      "problemTypes": [
        {
          "descriptions": [
            {
              "cweId": "CWE-379",
              "description": "CWE-379: Creation of Temporary File in Directory with Insecure Permissions",
              "lang": "en",
              "type": "CWE"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "descriptions": [
            {
              "cweId": "CWE-732",
              "description": "CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource",
              "lang": "en",
              "type": "CWE"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2023-12-19T02:07:02.864Z",
        "orgId": "a0819718-46f1-4df5-94e2-005712e83aaa",
        "shortName": "GitHub_M"
      },
      "references": [
        {
          "name": "https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/security/advisories/GHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5",
          "tags": [
            "x_refsource_CONFIRM"
          ],
          "url": "https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/security/advisories/GHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5"
        },
        {
          "name": "https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/pull/7827",
          "tags": [
            "x_refsource_MISC"
          ],
          "url": "https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/pull/7827"
        },
        {
          "name": "https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/0fb18b02c8ad56299d6a2910be0bab8ad601ef24/Lib/shutil.py#L623",
          "tags": [
            "x_refsource_MISC"
          ],
          "url": "https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/0fb18b02c8ad56299d6a2910be0bab8ad601ef24/Lib/shutil.py#L623"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/ISRWT34FAF23PUOLVZ7RVWBZMWPDR5U7/"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2K2XIQLEMZIKUQUOWNDYWTEWYQTKMAN7/"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "advisory": "GHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5",
        "discovery": "UNKNOWN"
      },
      "title": "Local Privilege Escalation in pyinstaller on Windows"
    }
  },
  "cveMetadata": {
    "assignerOrgId": "a0819718-46f1-4df5-94e2-005712e83aaa",
    "assignerShortName": "GitHub_M",
    "cveId": "CVE-2023-49797",
    "datePublished": "2023-12-09T00:42:46.182Z",
    "dateReserved": "2023-11-30T13:39:50.863Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2025-02-13T17:18:55.900Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
  },
  "dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
  "dataVersion": "5.1"
}



Log in or create an account to share your comment.




Tags
Taxonomy of the tags.




Drag nodes to arrange them. Double-click a related vulnerability to open it, or a source to visit its link. The Physics button on the left tunes the layout and the simulation; the legend at the bottom left hides or shows nodes by kind and by sighting type.

Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

Sightings

Author Source Type Date Other

Nomenclature

  • Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
  • Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
  • Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
  • Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
Vulnerability timeline

Sightings and recorded dates, grouped by day · UTC

JSON

Loading timeline…




    Related by attack behaviour

    Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.