CVE-2024-9050: Networkmanager-libreswan: local privilege escalation via leftupdown

Description

A flaw was found in the libreswan client plugin for NetworkManager (NetkworkManager-libreswan), where it fails to properly sanitize the VPN configuration from the local unprivileged user. In this configuration, composed by a key-value format, the plugin fails to escape special characters, leading the application to interpret values as keys. One of the most critical parameters that could be abused by a malicious user is the `leftupdown`key. This key takes an executable command as a value and is used to specify what executes as a callback in NetworkManager-libreswan to retrieve configuration settings back to NetworkManager. As NetworkManager uses Polkit to allow an unprivileged user to control the system's network configuration, a malicious actor could achieve local privilege escalation and potential code execution as root in the targeted machine by creating a malicious configuration.

Classification

CVE ID: CVE-2024-9050

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

EPSS Score: 0.05% (probability of being exploited)

EPSS Percentile: 19.37% (scored less or equal to compared to others)

EPSS Date: 2025-02-03 (when was this score calculated)

References

Timeline

2024-12-07 00:31:29 UTC
CVE

Networkmanager-libreswan: local privilege escalation via leftupdown