Skip to content

Apache Superset - Elevation of Privilege (CVE-2023-40610)

High
orange-cert-cc published GHSA-f678-j579-4xf5 Nov 27, 2023

Package

Superset (Apache)

Affected versions

<2.1.2

Patched versions

2.1.2

Description

Overview

An attacker with access to the SQL Lab and the ab_user and ab_user_role tables can elevate his privileges to become administrator.

Details

On a more general level, diverse tables who are supposed to be only readable can be modified using the WITH … AS and RETURNING keywords.
Modification of the table key_value can also be done, which could lead to a Remote Code Execution (cf. "V7 - Insecure deserialization leading to remote code execution" report vulnerability).

Proof of Concept

Some tables are supposed to accept only SELECT requests from the SQL tab.

  • Attempt to create a new user injected_admin into the ab_user table: PoC_1

But this protection can be bypassed by using the WITH … AS () syntax with RETURNING value after the INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE query.
INSERT query accepted by the database due to the use of WITH … AS ( … RETURNING ) syntax:
WITH a AS ( INSERT INTO ab_user (id, first_name, last_name, username, email, password) VALUES (2, ‘injected_admin’, ‘injected_admin’, ‘injected_admin’, ‘injected_admin@gmail.com’, ‘{PASSWORD_HASH}’) RETURNING id ) SELECT * FROM a;
PoC_2

  • injected_admin added to the ab_user table: PoC_3

This method can also be used with UPDATE or DELETE request. A user with access to SELECT on the tables ab_user_role can escalate his privilege to become administrator.

  • Locating the ID of the user ‘Auditeur B’, who has no rights and is not an admin. The request is done being ‘Auditeur B’: PoC_4
  • Locating the rows that keep the role of the user ‘Auditeur B’. The row 36 stores the value 3, indicating the role ‘Alpha’ for ‘Auditeur B’: PoC_5
  • Modification of the row 36 with an UPDATE request embedded in a WITH request: PoC_6
  • ‘Auditeur B’ role has been changed to Admin: PoC_7

This technique can also be used to inject or modify values of the table key_value, which can potentially lead to a Remote Code Execution (cf. ...).

Solution

Orange recommendation

To fix this vulnerability, we recommends reenforcing the SELECT filter to spot INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE keywords even in WITH requests.

Security patch

Upgrade to Superset version 2.1.2.

References

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-40610
https://lists.apache.org/thread/jvgxpk4dbxyqtsgtl4pdgbd520rc0rot

Credits

LEXFO for Orange Innovation

Orange CERT-CC at Orange group

Timeline

Date reported: July 27, 2023
Date fixed: November 27, 2023

Severity

High
7.3
/ 10

CVSS base metrics

Attack vector
Adjacent
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

CVE ID

CVE-2023-40610

Weaknesses