DEBIAN-CVE-2021-21261

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Source
https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-21261
Import Source
https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2021-21261.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/DEBIAN-CVE-2021-21261
Upstream
Published
2021-01-14T20:15:12Z
Modified
2025-09-30T03:54:40Z
Severity
  • 8.8 (High) CVSS_V3 - CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H CVSS Calculator
Summary
[none]
Details

Flatpak is a system for building, distributing, and running sandboxed desktop applications on Linux. A bug was discovered in the flatpak-portal service that can allow sandboxed applications to execute arbitrary code on the host system (a sandbox escape). This sandbox-escape bug is present in versions from 0.11.4 and before fixed versions 1.8.5 and 1.10.0. The Flatpak portal D-Bus service (flatpak-portal, also known by its D-Bus service name org.freedesktop.portal.Flatpak) allows apps in a Flatpak sandbox to launch their own subprocesses in a new sandbox instance, either with the same security settings as the caller or with more restrictive security settings. For example, this is used in Flatpak-packaged web browsers such as Chromium to launch subprocesses that will process untrusted web content, and give those subprocesses a more restrictive sandbox than the browser itself. In vulnerable versions, the Flatpak portal service passes caller-specified environment variables to non-sandboxed processes on the host system, and in particular to the flatpak run command that is used to launch the new sandbox instance. A malicious or compromised Flatpak app could set environment variables that are trusted by the flatpak run command, and use them to execute arbitrary code that is not in a sandbox. As a workaround, this vulnerability can be mitigated by preventing the flatpak-portal service from starting, but that mitigation will prevent many Flatpak apps from working correctly. This is fixed in versions 1.8.5 and 1.10.0.

References

Affected packages

Debian:11 / flatpak

Package

Name
flatpak
Purl
pkg:deb/debian/flatpak?arch=source

Affected ranges

Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
0Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected
Fixed
1.8.5-1

Ecosystem specific 

{
    "urgency": "not yet assigned"
}

Debian:12 / flatpak

Package

Name
flatpak
Purl
pkg:deb/debian/flatpak?arch=source

Affected ranges

Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
0Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected
Fixed
1.8.5-1

Ecosystem specific 

{
    "urgency": "not yet assigned"
}

Debian:13 / flatpak

Package

Name
flatpak
Purl
pkg:deb/debian/flatpak?arch=source

Affected ranges

Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
0Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected
Fixed
1.8.5-1

Ecosystem specific 

{
    "urgency": "not yet assigned"
}

Debian:14 / flatpak

Package

Name
flatpak
Purl
pkg:deb/debian/flatpak?arch=source

Affected ranges

Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
0Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected
Fixed
1.8.5-1

Ecosystem specific 

{
    "urgency": "not yet assigned"
}