REDHAT-BUG-892813: Medium severity phusion passenger vulnerability

Published Jan 7, 2013
·
Updated

Michael Scherer reported that the passenger ruby gem, when used in standalone mode, does not use temporary files in a secure manner. In the lib/phusionpassenger/standalone/main.rb's createnginxcontroller function, passenger creates an nginx configuration file insecurely and starts nginx with that configuration file:

@tempdir = "/tmp/passenger-standalone.#{$$}" @configfilename = "#{@tempdir}/config"

If a local attacker were able to create a temporary directory that passenger uses and supply a custom nginx configuration file they could start an nginx instance with their own configuration file. This could result in a denial of service condition for a legitimate service or, if passenger were executed as root (in order to have nginx listen on port 80, for instance), this could lead to a local root compromise.

Affected Software

1 affected component
Phusion Passenger

Event History

Jan 7, 2013
Data Sourced
via Red Hat·10:05 PM
DescriptionSeverityAffected Software

Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of REDHAT-BUG-892813?

The severity of REDHAT-BUG-892813 is considered high due to insecure handling of temporary files affecting system security.

2

How do I fix REDHAT-BUG-892813?

To fix REDHAT-BUG-892813, update the Phusion Passenger gem to the latest version that addresses the insecure configuration file creation.

3

What systems are affected by REDHAT-BUG-892813?

REDHAT-BUG-892813 affects systems using the Phusion Passenger gem in standalone mode.

4

What vulnerabilities does REDHAT-BUG-892813 introduce?

REDHAT-BUG-892813 introduces potential unauthorized access and data leakage through insecure temporary file handling.

5

Is there a workaround for REDHAT-BUG-892813?

Currently, the recommended workaround for REDHAT-BUG-892813 is to avoid using the affected functionality until the gem is updated.

Contact

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