CVE-2023-46253 Remote code execution in Squidex

Critical 9.1 Published 7 Nov 2023 Updated 4 Sep 2024

An authenticated attacker with restore permissions can achieve remote code execution via path traversal in the backup restore feature.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: An administrator
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2023-46253?

CVE-2023-46253 is a critical path traversal vulnerability in squidex, published on 7 Nov 2023. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Squidex is an open source headless CMS and content management hub. Affected versions are subject to an arbitrary file write vulnerability in the backup restore feature which allows an authenticated attacker to gain remote code execution (RCE). Squidex allows users with the `squidex.admin.restore` permission to create and restore backups. Part of these backups are the assets uploaded to an App. For each asset, the backup zip archive contains a `.asset` file with the actual content of the asset as well as a related `AssetCreatedEventV2` event, which is stored in a JSON file. Amongst other things, the JSON file contains the event type (`AssetCreatedEventV2`), the ID of the asset (`46c05041-9588-4179-b5eb-ddfcd9463e1e`), its filename (`test.txt`), and its file version (`0`). When a backup with this event is restored, the `BackupAssets.ReadAssetAsync` method is responsible for re-creating the asset. For this purpose, it determines the name of the `.asset` file in the zip archive, reads its content, and stores the content in the filestore. When the asset is stored in the filestore via the UploadAsync method, the assetId and fileVersion are passed as arguments. These are further passed to the method GetFileName, which determines the filename where the asset should be stored. The assetId is inserted into the filename without any sanitization and an attacker with squidex.admin.restore privileges to run arbitrary operating system commands on the underlying server (RCE).

Weakness: CWE-22

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-46253?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Squidex.io Squidex.

How do I fix CVE-2023-46253?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-46253 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

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

Is CVE-2023-46253 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2023-46253 exists.

Sources

Also known as GHSA-phqq-8g7v-3pg5.