Detections
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Alpine: multiple flatpak packages: security update to 1.12.3-r0

high Tenable Cloud Security Plugin ID 404476

Description

There are packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability referenced in the following CVE:

 - Flatpak is a Linux application sandboxing and distribution framework. Prior to versions 1.12.3 and 1.10.6,
 Flatpak doesn't properly validate that the permissions displayed to the user for an app at install time
 match the actual permissions granted to the app at runtime, in the case that there's a null byte in the
 metadata file of an app. Therefore apps can grant themselves permissions without the consent of the user.
 Flatpak shows permissions to the user during install by reading them from the "xa.metadata" key in the
 commit metadata. This cannot contain a null terminator, because it is an untrusted GVariant. Flatpak
 compares these permissions to the *actual* metadata, from the "metadata" file to ensure it wasn't lied to.
 However, the actual metadata contents are loaded in several places where they are read as simple C-style
 strings. That means that, if the metadata file includes a null terminator, only the content of the file
 from *before* the terminator gets compared to xa.metadata. Thus, any permissions that appear in the
 metadata file after a null terminator are applied at runtime but not shown to the user. So maliciously
 crafted apps can give themselves hidden permissions. Users who have Flatpaks installed from untrusted
 sources are at risk in case the Flatpak has a maliciously crafted metadata file, either initially or in an
 update. This issue is patched in versions 1.12.3 and 1.10.6. As a workaround, users can manually check the
 permissions of installed apps by checking the metadata file or the xa.metadata key on the commit metadata.
 (CVE-2021-43860)

See Also

https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2021-43860

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 404476

Version: Revision 1.29

Type: Local

Published: 10/31/2023

Updated: 7/2/2026

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 7

Percentile: 98.31

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.8

Temporal Score: 5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-43860

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.6

Temporal Score: 7.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 1/12/2022

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2021-43860