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containerd CRI plugin: Host memory exhaustion through ExecSync

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jun 6, 2022 in containerd/containerd • Updated Jan 31, 2024

Package

gomod github.com/containerd/containerd (Go)

Affected versions

< 1.5.13
>= 1.6.0, < 1.6.6

Patched versions

1.5.13
1.6.6

Description

Impact

A bug was found in containerd's CRI implementation where programs inside a container can cause the containerd daemon to consume memory without bound during invocation of the ExecSync API. This can cause containerd to consume all available memory on the computer, denying service to other legitimate workloads. Kubernetes and crictl can both be configured to use containerd's CRI implementation; ExecSync may be used when running probes or when executing processes via an "exec" facility.

Patches

This bug has been fixed in containerd 1.6.6 and 1.5.13. Users should update to these versions to resolve the issue.

Workarounds

Ensure that only trusted images and commands are used.

References

Credits

The containerd project would like to thank David Korczynski and Adam Korczynski of ADA Logics for responsibly disclosing this issue in accordance with the containerd security policy during a security audit sponsored by CNCF and facilitated by OSTIF.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

References

@dmcgowan dmcgowan published to containerd/containerd Jun 6, 2022
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jun 6, 2022
Reviewed Jun 6, 2022
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Jun 9, 2022
Last updated Jan 31, 2024

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

0.045%
(15th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2022-31030

GHSA ID

GHSA-5ffw-gxpp-mxpf

Source code

Credits

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