# CVE-2024-28185: Judge0 vulnerable to Sandbox Escape via Symbolic Link

> Attackers can escape the sandbox and execute arbitrary code by creating symbolic links in the submission directory, affecting Judge0 deployments.

- **Severity:** Critical 10.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 18 Apr 2024
- **Updated:** 2 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-h9g2-45c8-89cf

## What is CVE-2024-28185?

CVE-2024-28185 is a critical path traversal vulnerability in judge0, published on 18 Apr 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Judge0 is an open-source online code execution system. The application does not account for symlinks placed inside the sandbox directory, which can be leveraged by an attacker to write to arbitrary files and gain code execution outside of the sandbox. When executing a submission, Judge0 writes a `run_script` to the sandbox directory. The security issue is that an attacker can create a symbolic link (symlink) at the path `run_script` before this code is executed, resulting in the `f.write` writing to an arbitrary file on the unsandboxed system. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to overwrite scripts on the system and gain code execution outside of the sandbox.

Weakness: CWE-61 (UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following), CWE-59 (Improper Link Resolution Before File Access)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-28185?


## How do I fix CVE-2024-28185?

No fix has been published for CVE-2024-28185 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2024-28185 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2024-28185 exists.

Public exploit code:

- Judge0 sandbox escape (metasploit)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-28185 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-28185 is a critical path traversal vulnerability in judge0, published on 18 Apr 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2024-28185 exists.

Affected product: judge0. 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-2024-28185/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-28185/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-28185
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-28185
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-28185

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-28185/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.