CVE-2023-30549
7.1 · HIGHOverview
CVE-2023-30549 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting lfprojects apptainer. It was published on April 25, 2023 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.1 (HIGH).
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.1, rated HIGH. It requires local or adjacent network access to exploit. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
Technical Description
Apptainer is an open source container platform for Linux. There is an ext4 use-after-free flaw that is exploitable through versions of Apptainer < 1.1.0 and installations that include apptainer-suid < 1.1.8 on older operating systems where that CVE has not been patched. That includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Debian 10 buster (unless the linux-5.10 package is installed), Ubuntu 18.04 bionic and Ubuntu 20.04 focal. Use-after-free flaws in the kernel can be used to attack the kernel for denial of service and potentially for privilege escalation.
Apptainer 1.1.8 includes a patch that by default disables mounting of extfs filesystem types in setuid-root mode, while continuing to allow mounting of extfs filesystems in non-setuid "rootless" mode using fuse2fs.
Some workarounds are possible. Either do not install apptainer-suid (for versions 1.1.0 through 1.1.7) or set `allow setuid = no` in apptainer.conf. This requires having unprivileged user namespaces enabled and except for apptaine
Remediation
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from lfprojects. Update apptainer to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| lfprojects | apptainer | >= 0, < 1.1.8 | Affected |
References
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2023-30549?
CVE-2023-30549 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting lfprojects apptainer. It was published on April 25, 2023 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.1 (HIGH).
How severe is CVE-2023-30549?
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.1, rated HIGH. It requires local or adjacent network access to exploit. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
How do I fix or remediate CVE-2023-30549?
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from lfprojects. Update apptainer to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2023-30549?
CyberStrike's AI-powered security agents can automatically detect CVE-2023-30549 across your infrastructure using autonomous pentesting, DAST scanning, and HackBrowser. The platform continuously monitors for known vulnerabilities and provides actionable remediation guidance prioritized by real-world exploitability.
How CyberStrike Helps
AI agents map your attack surface to find vulnerabilities like this one.
Automated penetration testing that runs continuously, not just quarterly.
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