CVE-2017-0901 RubyGems may allow a maliciously crafted gem to overwrite files

What is CVE-2017-0901?

CVE-2017-0901 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 31 Aug 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

RubyGems version 2.6.12 and earlier fails to validate specification names, allowing a maliciously crafted gem to potentially overwrite any file on the filesystem.

Weakness: CWE-20, CWE-22

Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-0901?

2 open source packages ship an affected version, including rubygems-update. It affects 9 products.

Products include Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktop, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Aus, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Eus and 3 more.

How do I fix CVE-2017-0901?

Upgrade rubygems-update to 2.6.13 or later.

Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.

Is CVE-2017-0901 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2017-0901 exists.

Public exploit code: 1 Exploit-DB entry.

Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

• CVE-2020-11651 SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2020-7247 OpenSMTPD Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2019-16928 Exim Out-of-bounds Write Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2018-6789 Exim Buffer Overflow Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2015-2590 Oracle Java SE and Java SE Embedded Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 9.8

All Canonical Ubuntu Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2017-0901, CLEANSTART-2026-HJ73533, DEBIAN-CVE-2017-0901, GHSA-pm9x-4392-2c2p, UBUNTU-CVE-2017-0901.