CVE-2023-29193 SpiceDB binding metrics port to untrusted networks and can leak command-line flags

What is CVE-2023-29193?

CVE-2023-29193 is a high-severity vulnerability in authzed spicedb, published on 14 Apr 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

SpiceDB is an open source, Google Zanzibar-inspired, database system for creating and managing security-critical application permissions. The `spicedb serve` command contains a flag named `--grpc-preshared-key` which is used to protect the gRPC API from being accessed by unauthorized requests. The values of this flag are to be considered sensitive, secret data. The `/debug/pprof/cmdline` endpoint served by the metrics service (defaulting running on port `9090`) reveals the command-line flags provided for debugging purposes. If a password is set via the `--grpc-preshared-key` then the key is revealed by this endpoint along with any other flags provided to the SpiceDB binary. This issue has been fixed in version 1.19.1.

### Impact

All deployments abiding by the recommended best practices for production usage are **NOT affected**: - Authzed's SpiceDB Serverless - Authzed's SpiceDB Dedicated - SpiceDB Operator

Users configuring SpiceDB via environment variables are **NOT affected**.

Users **MAY be affected** if they expose their metrics port to an untrusted network and are configuring `--grpc-preshared-key` via command-line flag.

### Patches

TODO

### Workarounds

To workaround this issue you can do one of the following:

- Configure the preshared key via an environment variable (e.g. `SPICEDB_GRPC_PRESHARED_KEY=yoursecret spicedb serve`) - Reconfigure the `--metrics-addr` flag to bind to a trusted network (e.g. `--metrics-addr=localhost:9090`) - Disable the metrics service via the flag (e.g. `--metrics-enabled=false`) - Adopt one of the recommended deployment models: [Authzed's managed services](https://authzed.com/pricing) or the [SpiceDB Operator](https://github.com/authzed/spicedb-operator)

### References

- [GitHub Security Advisory issued for SpiceDB](https://github.com/authzed/spicedb/security/advisories/GHSA-cjr9-mr35-7xh6) - [Go issue #22085](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/22085) for documenting the risks of exposing pprof to the internet - [Go issue #42834](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/42834) discusses preventing pprof registration to the default serve mux - [semgrep rule go.lang.security.audit.net.pprof.pprof-debug-exposure](https://semgrep.dev/r?q=go.lang.security.audit.net.pprof) checks for a variation of this issue

### Credit

We'd like to thank Amit Laish, a security researcher at GE Vernova for responsibly disclosing this vulnerability.

Weakness: CWE-209

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-29193?

3 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/authzed/spicedb. It affects 1 product.

Products include Authzed Spicedb.

How do I fix CVE-2023-29193?

Upgrade github.com/authzed/spicedb to 1.19.1 or later.

Is CVE-2023-29193 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-29193 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in authzed spicedb

• CVE-2022-21646 Lookup operations do not take into account wildcards in SpiceDB High 8.1
• CVE-2024-27101 Integer overflow in chunking helper causes dispatching to miss elements or panic High 7.3
• CVE-2026-40091 SpiceDB: SPICEDB_DATASTORE_CONN_URI is leaked on startup logs Medium 6.0
• CVE-2023-46255 `SPICEDB_DATASTORE_CONN_URI` is leaked when URI cannot be parsed Medium 4.2
• CVE-2025-49011 SpiceDB checks involving relations with caveats can result in no permission when permission is expected Low 3.7

Sources

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

Also known as GHSA-cjr9-mr35-7xh6, GO-2023-1723.