# CVE-2020-26273: sqlite ATTACH allows some filesystem access

> Administrators can use SQLite ATTACH to read or write arbitrary SQLite databases on disk, potentially exposing or modifying data.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 16 Dec 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4g56-2482-x7q8

## What is CVE-2020-26273?

CVE-2020-26273 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in osquery, published on 16 Dec 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

osquery is a SQL powered operating system instrumentation, monitoring, and analytics framework. In osquery before version 4.6.0, by using sqlite's ATTACH verb, someone with administrative access to osquery can cause reads and writes to arbitrary sqlite databases on disk. This _does_ allow arbitrary files to be created, but they will be sqlite databases. It does not appear to allow existing non-sqlite files to be overwritten. This has been patched in osquery 4.6.0. There are several mitigating factors and possible workarounds. In some deployments, the people with access to these interfaces may be considered administrators. In some deployments, configuration is managed by a central tool. This tool can filter for the `ATTACH` keyword. osquery can be run as non-root user. Because this also limits the desired access levels, this requires deployment specific testing and configuration.

Weakness: CWE-77 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in a Command)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-26273?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linuxfoundation Osquery.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-26273?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-26273 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-26273 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-26273 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in osquery

- [CVE-2020-1887](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-1887/): Weak cryptography in Osquery (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2019-3567](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-3567/): Path traversal in osquery (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2018-6336](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6336/): Security feature bypass in osquery (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2020-11081](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11081/): osquery susceptible to DLL search order hijacking of zlib1.dll (medium 5.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-26273 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-26273 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in osquery, published on 16 Dec 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-26273 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: osquery. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-26273/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-26273/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-26273
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-26273
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-26273

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-26273/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.