Amazon Linux 2 : log4j-cve-2021-44228-hotpatch (ALAS-2022-1806)

high Nessus Plugin ID 162309

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Synopsis

The remote Amazon Linux 2 host is missing a security update.

Description

The version of log4j-cve-2021-44228-hotpatch installed on the remote host is prior to 1.3-5. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ALAS2-2022-1806 advisory.

Versions of the Apache Log4j hotpatch package before log4j-cve-2021-44228-hotpatch-1.3-5 are affected by a race condition that could lead to a local privilege escalation.

The Apache Log4j Hotpatch is not a replacement for updating to a log4j version that mitigates CVE-2021-44228 or CVE-2021-45046, it provides a temporary mitigation to CVE-2021-44228 by hotpatching local Java virtual machines. To do so, the hotpatch script iterates through all running Java processes, performs several checks, and executes the Java virtual machine with the same permissions and capabilities as the running process to load the hotpatch.

A local user could cause the hotpatch script to execute a binary with elevated privileges by running a custom java process which performs exec() of a set user ID binary after the hotpatch has observed the process path and before it has observed its effective user ID.

To leverage this issue a user must already have local access to the target system with permissions to run custom programs.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the tested product security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Run 'yum update log4j-cve-2021-44228-hotpatch' to update your system.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 162309

File Name: al2_ALAS-2022-1806.nasl

Version: 1.7

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Amazon Linux Local Security Checks

Published: 6/16/2022

Updated: 5/1/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.9

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.4

Temporal Score: 3.3

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2022-33915

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7

Temporal Score: 6.1

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:log4j-cve-2021-44228-hotpatch, cpe:/o:amazon:linux:2

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/AmazonLinux/release, Host/AmazonLinux/rpm-list

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 6/13/2022

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/10/2021

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2022-33915

Detections

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