Eliminate use of state/node files in temp directory #40
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CVE-2013-4184 discusses the insecure usage of `/tmp/.UUID_STATE` and `/tmp/.UUID_NODEID`, due to a potential symlink attack. Unfortunately, this code is old enough that none of the current maintainers fully understand the history of the code, nor do we have sufficient context from the commit history. Rather than attempting to address this vulnerability by changing the location of where these files are written, or by adding additional logic to ensure that they are handled securely, this patch addresses the issue by eliminating the need for these two files completely.
Now that we are no longer saving any context (of either the Node, or the State), we no longer need to maintain a "when should we do the next save?" field in the UUID context.
We no longer save any State/Node files to disk, so we do not need to keep track of what the requested umask was for those files.
We no longer save State/Node files out to disk, and so we no longer require the option to specify what directory those files should be recorded or saved to.
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why was this closed? |
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@karenetheridge we are in the process of transferring the repository, but doing that required us to blow away my forked repository. So no, we are not dropping this MR, just shuffling things around so that someone (me) can help find time to try to move the various MRs/issues ahead. |
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@bleargh45 Are there any updates on this? Is there anything we can do to help move this along? |
This was referenced Jul 24, 2023
bleargh45
added a commit
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Mar 17, 2024
Re-submit PR #40 to eliminate use of state/node files in temp directory
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#5 identifies a security concern due to insecure writing of State/Node files in a temporary directory, with predictable filenames, with a possible symlink attack.
Rather than attempting to address the issue by using more random filenames, or by adding extra logic to ensure that the files are being handled in a secure manner, this PR simply eliminates the use of these files completely.
Unfortunately, the historical reason for why the files were originally needed is lost, but discussion present in #5 posits that they may have been present for performance reasons.
Existing test suite passes without change.
Further, the issue highlighted in #27 regarding "duplicate UUIDs after fork" does not appear to be any worse with these changes to remove the state/node files. After running the command documented in #27 repeatedly, both before and after this change, I see no increase in the number of duplicate UUIDs.