Vulnerability · Published Jan 15, 2024 · Assigned by redhat
CVE-2023-4001Grub2: bypass the grub password protection feature
Medium 6.8
In plain English
A medium-severity authentication bypass by spoofing in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 from Red Hat. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.5% (higher than 46% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
An authentication bypass flaw was found in GRUB due to the way that GRUB uses the UUID of a device to search for the configuration file that contains the password hash for the GRUB password protection feature. An attacker capable of attaching an external drive such as a USB stick containing a file system with a duplicate UUID (the same as in the "/boot/" file system) can bypass the GRUB password protection feature on UEFI systems, which enumerate removable drives before non-removable ones. This issue was introduced in a downstream patch in Red Hat's version of grub2 and does not affect the upstream package.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-common | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-efi-aa64 | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-efi-aa64-cdboot | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-efi-aa64-modules | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-efi-x64 | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-efi-x64-cdboot | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-efi-x64-modules | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-pc | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-pc-modules | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-ppc64le | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-ppc64le-modules | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-tools | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-tools-efi | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-tools-extra | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | grub2-tools-minimal | 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2.alma.1 | ALSA-2024:0468 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0 Extended Update Support | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Extended Update Support | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | see references |
Weakness: CWE-290 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
- RHSA-2024:0437 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2024:0456 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2024:0468 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-4001 vdb-entry, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2224951 issue-tracking, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://dfir.ru/2024/01/15/cve-2023-4001-a-vulnerability-in-the-downstream-grub-boot-manager/
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/01/15/3 x_transferred
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/3OBADMKHQLJOBA32Q7XPNSYMVHVAFDCB/ x_transferred
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/CHLZQ47HM64NDOHMHYO7VIJFYD5ZPPYN/ x_transferred
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20240216-0006/ x_transferred