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NixOS modules: chmod leaves opportunity to leak secrets #121293

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dotlambda opened this issue Apr 30, 2021 · 25 comments
Open
36 of 42 tasks

NixOS modules: chmod leaves opportunity to leak secrets #121293

dotlambda opened this issue Apr 30, 2021 · 25 comments
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1.severity: security Issues which raise a security issue, or PRs that fix one 3.skill: sprintable A larger issue which is split into distinct actionable tasks 5. scope: tracking Long-lived issue tracking long-term fixes or multiple sub-problems 6.topic: nixos Issues or PRs affecting NixOS modules, or package usability issues specific to NixOS
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23.11

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@dotlambda
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dotlambda commented Apr 30, 2021 •
edited by Stunkymonkey
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touch, cp, etc. followed by chmod leaves an opportunity to leak secrets as explained in #121288. install -m does the same, but in one command. Use umask instead.
The following modules might be affected:

EDIT: wording, to make clear that I did not check whether this actually causes a problem in all of the above cases
@dotlambda dotlambda added 1.severity: security Issues which raise a security issue, or PRs that fix one 3.skill: sprintable A larger issue which is split into distinct actionable tasks labels Apr 30, 2021
@dotlambda
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I would say that mkdir followed by chmod is usually not problematic because no files will be created in between the two operations. However, it might be better style to use mkdir -m or install -dm.

@Ma27 Ma27 mentioned this issue Apr 30, 2021
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@bjornfor
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However, it might be better style to use mkdir -m or install -dm.

I don't know about install, but I think mkdir -m will not set the permissions if the directory already exists (so configured vs actual permissions might diverge).

@dotlambda
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dotlambda commented Apr 30, 2021 •
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I don't know about install, but I think mkdir -m will not set the permissions if the directory already exists (so configured vs actual permissions might diverge).

Yes, if -p is used existing directories will not be changed. If it's not used, it will just cause an error.
install -dm will change the permissions of an existing directory though.

Ma27 added a commit to Ma27/nixpkgs that referenced this issue Apr 30, 2021
@Ma27
nixos/gitea: set umask for secret creation
02c3bd2 
This ensures that newly created secrets will have the permissions
`0640`. With this change it's ensured that no sensitive information will
be word-readable at any time.

Related to NixOS#121293.

Strictly speaking this is a breaking change since each new directory
(including data-files) aren't world-readable anymore, but actually these
shouldn't be, unless there's a good reason for it.
@cole-h
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cole-h commented Apr 30, 2021

Even though the actual ping never went through, I think you meant @colemickens for nixos/modules/virtualisation/azure-image.nix ;)

@dotlambda
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@cole-h Sorry, I didn't mean to relate your name to any FUD nonsense ;-)

@m1cr0man
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Wrt acme, lego will write with 0600 permissions, which means that only the acme user can initially read any of the secure files it outputs. The chmod/chgrp/chowns scattered throughout acme.nix are there to either open or correct permissions such that the configured group will be able to read the certs. The acme-fixperms service is there solely to fix insecure permissions that may have existed in past iterations of the module (on upgrading systems). The only possible leak I can see is through the selfsigned service, which applies a chmod 600 after minica is called. I will set the umask on the selfsigned cert generator service instead.

@nh2
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nh2 commented Apr 30, 2021

The chmod/chgrp/chowns scattered throughout acme.nix are there to either open or correct permissions such that the configured group will be able to read the certs

We should best annotate such safe uses with comments to make it clear.

markuskowa added a commit to markuskowa/nixpkgs that referenced this issue Apr 30, 2021
@markuskowa
nixos/slurm: fix creation of slurmdbd config file
d07185f 
replace cp/chmod by install to avoid security issues.
See NixOS#121293
@markuskowa markuskowa mentioned this issue Apr 30, 2021
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@dotlambda
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dotlambda commented May 1, 2021 •
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I would say that mkdir followed by chmod is usually not problematic because no files will be created in between the two operations. However, it might be better style to use mkdir -m or install -dm.

@mohe2015 Can you elaborate on what your 👎 means?

@mohe2015
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mohe2015 commented May 1, 2021

I would say that mkdir followed by chmod is usually not problematic because no files will be created in between the two operations. However, it might be better style to use mkdir -m or install -dm.

I'm not sure but I could imagine that someone could write to the directory in the rare case that the default permissions allow that. I just thought it would be cleaner to go all the way if somebody puts in the effort. But if this is really impossible it shouldn't matter.

@rnhmjoj
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rnhmjoj commented May 1, 2021

In searx it's not much of an issue: it only allows users of the searx group to read the secrets, but I will try to fix it anyway.

@picnoir
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picnoir commented May 1, 2021

FYI:

  1. I'm not NSD's maintainer.
  2. I did not write that code.
  3. The state dir is mode 700.

I'll fix it nevertheless.

@alyssais
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alyssais commented May 1, 2021 •
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I don't believe the mailman module is vulnerable, because it uses mktemp(1) to create its secret file

Files are created u+rw, and directories u+rwx, minus umask restrictions.

So the chmod should just have the effect of broadening the permissions to make it group readable. (It also does u-w, but that's meaningless since the owner is root.)

But I will do some testing today to verify that I am correct here.

Edit: I have confirmed this by commenting out the chmod/chown, and indeed the file starts being accessible only to root.

bjornfor added a commit to bjornfor/nixpkgs that referenced this issue May 1, 2021
@bjornfor
nixos/atd: prefer 'install' over 'mkdir/chmod/chown'
225d915 
I don't think there was a security issue here, but using 'install' is
preferred.

Ref NixOS#121293.
@bjornfor bjornfor mentioned this issue May 1, 2021
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bjornfor added a commit to bjornfor/nixpkgs that referenced this issue May 1, 2021
@bjornfor
nixos/wpa_supplicant: prefer 'install' over 'touch/chmod/mkdir/chgrp'
5d47dc7 
Ref NixOS#121293.
@bjornfor bjornfor mentioned this issue May 1, 2021
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@veprbl veprbl added the 6.topic: nixos Issues or PRs affecting NixOS modules, or package usability issues specific to NixOS label May 1, 2021
@Nadrieril
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Nadrieril commented May 1, 2021 •
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The syncserver module is broken and due for removal (#74725), so I guess it doesn't matter

@picnoir picnoir mentioned this issue May 1, 2021
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@picnoir
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picnoir commented May 1, 2021

The nsd fix is there: #121427

@endgame endgame mentioned this issue May 1, 2021
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endgame commented May 1, 2021 •
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I've done the compute image metadata fetchers in #121449, but GH assigned no reviewers. Can someone here review for me?

github-actions bot pushed a commit that referenced this issue Jul 6, 2021
@m1cr0man @github-actions
nixos/acme: Ensure certs are always protected
c192fd5 
As per #121293, I ensured the UMask is set correctly
and removed any unnecessary chmod/chown/chgrp commands.
The test suite already partially covered permissions
checking but I added an extra check for the selfsigned
cert permissions.

(cherry picked from commit 083aba4)
@nixos-discourse
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This issue has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-should-one-report-small-vulnerabilities-in-individual-modules/17279/1

@nh2
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nh2 commented Jan 23, 2022

@ryantm Would your ryantm@b0088d4 be upstreamable for mattermost?

@nixos-discourse
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This issue has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-should-one-report-small-vulnerabilities-in-individual-modules/17279/2

@Artturin Artturin modified the milestones: 21.05, 23.05 Dec 31, 2022
@RaitoBezarius RaitoBezarius modified the milestones: 23.05, 23.11 May 31, 2023
@nbraud
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nbraud commented Dec 24, 2023 •
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touch, cp, etc. followed by chmod leaves an opportunity to leak secrets as explained in #121288. install -m does the same, but in one command. Use umask instead.

Thank you so much for going through all the potentially-affected services <3

Did you mean to tag someone else? I did the PR for wpa_supplicant some time ago, but didn't poke swap.nix

P.S.: Speaking of which, #275312 (backporting the wpa_supplicant fix) is needing a review ;3

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1.severity: security Issues which raise a security issue, or PRs that fix one 3.skill: sprintable A larger issue which is split into distinct actionable tasks 5. scope: tracking Long-lived issue tracking long-term fixes or multiple sub-problems 6.topic: nixos Issues or PRs affecting NixOS modules, or package usability issues specific to NixOS
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