theupdateframework/python-tuf

Tough provides a set of Rust libraries and tools for using and generating the update framework (TUF) repositories. The tough library, prior to 0.12.0, does not properly sanitize delegated role names when caching a repository, or when loading a repository from the filesystem. When the repository is cached or loaded, files ending with the .json extension could be overwritten with role metadata anywhere on the system. A fix is available in version 0.12.0. No workarounds to this issue are known.

python-tuf is a Python reference implementation of The Update Framework (TUF). In both clients (`tuf/client` and `tuf/ngclient`), there is a path traversal vulnerability that in the worst case can overwrite files ending in `.json` anywhere on the client system on a call to `get_one_valid_targetinfo()`. It occurs because the rolename is used to form the filename, and may contain path traversal characters (ie `../../name.json`). The impact is mitigated by a few facts: It only affects implementations that allow arbitrary rolename selection for delegated targets metadata, The attack requires the ability to A) insert new metadata for the path-traversing role and B) get the role delegated by an existing targets metadata, The written file content is heavily restricted since it needs to be a valid, signed targets file. The file extension is always .json. A fix is available in version 0.19 or newer. There are no workarounds that do not require code changes. Clients can restrict the allowed character set for rolenames, or they can store metadata in files named in a way that is not vulnerable: neither of these approaches is possible without modifying python-tuf.

Python TUF (The Update Framework) reference implementation before version 0.12 it will incorrectly trust a previously downloaded root metadata file which failed verification at download time. This allows an attacker who is able to serve multiple new versions of root metadata (i.e. by a person-in-the-middle attack) culminating in a version which has not been correctly signed to control the trust chain for future updates. This is fixed in version 0.12 and newer.

The tough library (Rust/crates.io) prior to version 0.7.1 does not properly verify the threshold of cryptographic signatures. It allows an attacker to duplicate a valid signature in order to circumvent TUF requiring a minimum threshold of unique signatures before the metadata is considered valid. A fix is available in version 0.7.1. CVE-2020-6174 is assigned to the same vulnerability in the TUF reference implementation.