# CVE-2024-38368: Trunk's 'Claim your pod' could be used to obtain un-used pods

> Attackers could claim unowned or ownerless CocoaPods packages, allowing them to take control of the package and potentially distribute malicious code.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 1 Jul 2024
- **Updated:** 2 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-j483-qm5c-7hqx

## What is CVE-2024-38368?

CVE-2024-38368 is a critical missing authorization vulnerability in CocoaPods, published on 1 Jul 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

trunk.cocoapods.org is the authentication server for the CoacoaPods dependency manager. A vulnerability affected older pods which migrated from the pre-2014 pull request workflow to trunk. If the pods had never been claimed then it was still possible to do so. It was also possible to have all owners removed from a pod, and that made the pod available for the same claiming system. This was patched server-side in commit 71be5440906b6bdfbc0bcc7f8a9fec33367ea0f4 in September 2023.

Weakness: CWE-668 (Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-38368?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cocoapods Trunk.cocoapods.org.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-38368?

No fix has been published for CVE-2024-38368 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2024-38368 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-38368 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in CocoaPods

- [CVE-2024-38366](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-38366/): CoacoaPods trunk RCE in email verification system rfc-822 (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2024-38367](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-38367/): CoacoaPods trunk sessions verification step could be manipulated for owner session hijacking (high 8.2)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-38368 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-38368 is a critical missing authorization vulnerability in CocoaPods, published on 1 Jul 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-38368 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: CocoaPods. 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-2024-38368/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-38368/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-38368
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-38368
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-38368

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-38368/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.