CVE-2024-43378
calamares-nixos-extensions LUKS keyfile exposure regression on legacy BIOS systems
- State
- Published
- Severity
- 7.8 High
- Published
- Aug 15, 2024
- Updated
- Sep 3, 2024
- Reserved
- Aug 9, 2024
Description
calamares-nixos-extensions provides Calamares branding and modules for NixOS, a distribution of GNU/Linux. Users who installed NixOS through the graphical installer who used manual disk partitioning to create a setup where the system was booted via legacy BIOS rather than UEFI; some disk partitions are encrypted; but the partitions containing either `/` or `/boot` are unencrypted; have their LUKS disk encryption key file in plain text either in `/crypto_keyfile.bin`, or in a CPIO archive attached to their NixOS initrd. `nixos-install` is not affected, nor are UEFI installations, nor was the default automatic partitioning configuration on legacy BIOS systems. The problem has been fixed in calamares-nixos-extensions 0.3.17, which was included in NixOS. The current installer images for the NixOS 24.05 and unstable (24.11) channels are unaffected. The fix reached 24.05 at 2024-08-13 20:06:59 UTC, and unstable at 2024-08-15 09:00:20 UTC. Installer images downloaded before those times may be vulnerable. The best solution for affected users is probably to back up their data and do a complete reinstallation. However, the mitigation procedure in GHSA-3rvf-24q2-24ww should work solely for the case where `/` is encrypted but `/boot` is not. If `/` is unencrypted, then the `/crypto_keyfile.bin` file will need to be deleted in addition to the remediation steps in the previous advisory. This issue is a partial regression of CVE-2023-36476 / GHSA-3rvf-24q2-24ww, which was more severe as it applied to the default configuration on BIOS systems.
Scores
| CVSS | Score | Vector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 7.8 High | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N | GitHub_M |
Weaknesses
- CWE-256 Plaintext Storage of a Password
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
calamares-nixos-extensionsNixOS |
|
References
- https://github.com/NixOS/calamares-nixos-extensions/security/advisories/GHSA-vfxf-gpmj-2p25
- https://github.com/NixOS/calamares-nixos-extensions/security/advisories/GHSA-3rvf-24q2-24ww
- https://github.com/NixOS/calamares-nixos-extensions/pull/43
- https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/331607
- https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/334252
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