GHSA-vw27-fwjf-5qxm

Source

https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-vw27-fwjf-5qxm

Import Source

https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2021/10/GHSA-vw27-fwjf-5qxm/GHSA-vw27-fwjf-5qxm.json

JSON Data

https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/GHSA-vw27-fwjf-5qxm

Aliases

Published

2021-10-22T16:20:10Z

Modified

2024-10-16T21:08:44.233813Z

Severity

8.8 (High) CVSS_V3 - CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H CVSS Calculator

Summary

Arbitrary command execution on Windows via qutebrowserurl: URL handler

Details

Impact

Starting with qutebrowser v1.7.0, the Windows installer for qutebrowser registers it as a handler for certain URL schemes. With some applications such as Outlook Desktop, opening a specially crafted URL can lead to argument injection, allowing execution of qutebrowser commands, which in turn allows arbitrary code execution via commands such as :spawn or :debug-pyeval.

Only Windows installs where qutebrowser is registered as URL handler are affected. It does not have to be set as default browser for the exploit to work.

Patches

The issue has been fixed in qutebrowser v2.4.0 in commit 8f46ba3f6dc7b18375f7aa63c48a1fe461190430.

The fix also adds additional hardening for potential similar issues on Linux (by adding the new --untrusted-args flag to the .desktop file), though no such vulnerabilities are known.

Backported patches for older versions are available, but no further releases are planned:

v1.7.x: d1ceaab
v1.8.x: ca7155d
v1.9.x: 157d871
v1.10.x: 94a6125
v1.11.x: 10acfbb
v1.12.x: 363a18f
v1.13.x: 410f262
v1.14.x: e4f4d93
v2.0.x: 15a1654
v2.1.x: 509ddf2
v2.2.x: 03dcba5
v2.3.x: 00a694c

(commits are referring to qutebrowser/qutebrowser on GitHub)

Workarounds

Remove qutebrowser from the default browser settings entirely, so that it does not handle any kind of URLs. Make sure to remove all handlers, including an (accidental) qutebrowserURL handler, e.g. using NirSoft URLProtocolView.

Timeline

2021-10-15: Issue reported via security@qutebrowser.org by Ping Fan (Zetta) Ke of Valkyrie-X Security Research Group (VXRL) 2021-10-15: Issue confirmed by @The-Compiler (lead developer), author of installer (@bitraid) contacted for help/review 2021-10-15: CVE assigned by GitHub 2021-10-15 to 2021-10-17: Fix developed 2021-10-17: Additional core developer (@toofar) contacted for help/review 2021-10-21: v2.4.0 released containing the fix 2021-10-21: Advisory and fix published

References

See the commit message for additional information and references to various similar issues in other projects.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Ping Fan (Zetta) Ke of Valkyrie-X Security Research Group (VXRL/@vxresearch) for finding and responsibly disclosing this issue.

Contact

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, please email security@qutebrowser.org.

Database specific

{
    "nvd_published_at": "2021-10-21T18:15:00Z",
    "cwe_ids": [
        "CWE-641",
        "CWE-77",
        "CWE-88"
    ],
    "severity": "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2021-10-21T20:46:42Z"
}

References

Affected packages

PyPI / qutebrowser

Package

Name: qutebrowser; View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl: pkg:pypi/qutebrowser

Affected ranges

Type: ECOSYSTEM
Events: Introduced

1.7.0

Fixed

2.4.0

Affected versions

1.*

1.7.0

1.8.0

1.8.1

1.8.2

1.8.3

1.9.0

1.10.0

1.10.1

1.10.2

1.11.0

1.11.1

1.12.0

1.13.0

1.13.1

1.14.0

1.14.1

2.*

2.0.0

2.0.1

2.0.2

2.1.0

2.1.1

2.2.0

2.2.1

2.2.2

2.2.3

2.3.0

2.3.1