CVE-2020-8177

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Moderate Moderate Impact What does this mean?
5.4 CVSS v3 Base Score

Description

A flaw was found in curl. Overwriting local files is possible when using a certain combination of command line options. Requesting content from a malicious server could lead to overwriting local files with compromised files leading to unknown effects. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to file integrity.

Statement

This issue only affects the 'curl' command line utility. Additionally, this is only an issue when using the '-J' (with the '-O' option) and '-i' command line options combined.

In most cases, there is nothing to gain for a local attacker here: the curl command line utility is likely running with the same privileges as the user, and thus the user can already overwrite all the files curl could overwrite. However, a local user will have to call curl with the '-J' and '-i' command line options while requesting content from a malicious server, which then opens up an opportunity for the malicious server to overwrite local files.

Mitigation

The vulnerability is only possible when using the '-J' and '-i' switches in conjunction with the curl command. Executing curl without these switches mitigates the flaw.

Additional Information

External References

Content from www.cve.org is not included.https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-8177

Content from nvd.nist.gov is not included.https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-8177

Content from curl.haxx.se is not included.https://curl.haxx.se/docs/CVE-2020-8177.html

Affected Packages and Issued Red Hat Security Errata

Products / Services Components State Errata
.NET Core 2.1 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux rh-dotnet21-curl Not affected
.NET Core 3.1 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux rh-dotnet31-curl Not affected
Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 curl Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 curl Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 curl Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 curl Fixed RHSA-2020:5002
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 curl Fixed RHSA-2020:4599
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Extended Update Support curl Fixed RHSA-2020:5417
Red Hat JBoss Core Services jbcs-httpd24-curl Not affected
Red Hat OpenShift Do openshiftdo/odo-init-image-rhel7 Fixed RHSA-2021:0949
Unless explicitly stated as not affected, all previous versions of packages in any minor update stream of a product listed here should be assumed vulnerable, although may not have been subject to full analysis.

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authorities (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications ).

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown Red Hat NVD
CVSS v3 Base Score 5.4 7.8
Attack Vector Network Local
Attack Complexity High Low
Privileges Required Low Low
User Interaction Required None
Scope Unchanged Unchanged
Confidentiality Impact None High
Integrity Impact High High
Availability Impact Low High

CVSS v3 Vector

Red Hat CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L

NVD CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Red Hat CVSS v3 Score Explanation

'Access vector' has been set to network, as there's still a malicious server involved. 'Access complexity' has been set to high and 'User interaction' has been set to required, as it requires a victim to use an uncommon combination of command line arguments in combination with a request to a malicious server. 'Availability' has been set to low, because the files that can be overwritten by the malicious server are under various constraints (for example, the victim would need to have write access to the target file, the name needs to be known, the content written is not under arbitrary control).

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Red Hat's CVSS v3 score or Impact different from other vendors?

 For open source software shipped by multiple vendors, the CVSS base scores may vary for each vendor's version depending on the version they ship, how they ship it, the platform, and even how the software is compiled. This makes scoring of vulnerabilities difficult for third-party vulnerability databases such as NVD that only provide a single CVSS base score for each vulnerability. Red Hat scores reflect how a vulnerability affects our products specifically.

For more information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/762393.

My product is listed as "Under investigation" or "Affected", when will Red Hat release a fix for this vulnerability?
  • "Under investigation" doesn't necessarily mean that the product is affected by this vulnerability. It only means that our Analysis Team is still working on determining whether the product is affected and how it is affected.
  • "Affected" means that our Analysis Team has determined that this product is affected by this vulnerability and might release a fix to address this in the near future.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Will not fix"?

 A "will not fix" status means that a fix for an affected product version is not planned or not possible due to complexity, which may create additional risk.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Upgrade to a supported product version that includes a fix for this vulnerability (recommended).
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a This content is not included.support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Fix deferred"?

 A deferred status means that a fix for an affected product version is not guaranteed due to higher-priority development work.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a This content is not included.support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.
  • Red Hat Engineering focuses on addressing high-priority issues based on their complexity or limited lifecycle support. Therefore, lower-priority issues will not receive immediate fixes.

What is a mitigation?

 A mitigation is an action that can be taken to reduce the impact of a security vulnerability, without deploying any fixes.

I have a Red Hat product but it is not in the above list, is it affected?

 The listed products were found to include one or more of the components that this vulnerability affects. These products underwent a thorough evaluation to determine their affectedness by this vulnerability. Note that layered products (such as container-based offerings) that consume affected components from any of the products listed in this table may be affected and are not represented.

Why is my security scanner reporting my product as vulnerable to this vulnerability even though my product version is fixed or not affected?

 In order to maintain code stability and compatibility, Red Hat usually does not rebase packages to entirely new versions. Instead, we backport fixes and new features to an older version of the package we distribute. This can result in some security scanners that only consider the package version to report the package as vulnerable. To avoid this, we suggest that you use an approved vulnerability scanner from our This content is not included.Red Hat Vulnerability Scanner Certification program.

My product is listed as "Out of Support Scope". What does this mean?

 When a product is listed as "Out of Support Scope", it means a vulnerability with the impact level assigned to this CVE is no longer covered by its current support lifecycle phase. The product has been identified to contain the impacted component, but analysis to determine whether it is affected or not by this vulnerability was not performed. The product should be assumed to be affected. Customers are advised to apply any mitigation options documented on this page, consider removing or disabling the impacted component, or upgrade to a supported version of the product that has an update available.