CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2020-16128

Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information

Published: Dec 09, 2020 | Modified: Nov 21, 2024
CVSS 3.x
3.8
LOW
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:N
CVSS 2.x
2.1 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu
MEDIUM

The aptdaemon DBus interface disclosed file existence disclosure by setting Terminal/DebconfSocket properties, aka GHSL-2020-192 and GHSL-2020-196. This affected versions prior to 1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu34.1, 1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu32.3, 1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu19.5, 1.1.1+bzr982-0ubuntu14.5.

Weakness

The product generates an error message that includes sensitive information about its environment, users, or associated data.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Ubuntu_linux Canonical 16.04 (including) 16.04 (including)
Ubuntu_linux Canonical 18.04 (including) 18.04 (including)
Ubuntu_linux Canonical 20.04 (including) 20.04 (including)
Ubuntu_linux Canonical 20.10 (including) 20.10 (including)
Aptdaemon Ubuntu bionic *
Aptdaemon Ubuntu devel *
Aptdaemon Ubuntu esm-infra/bionic *
Aptdaemon Ubuntu esm-infra/focal *
Aptdaemon Ubuntu esm-infra/xenial *
Aptdaemon Ubuntu focal *
Aptdaemon Ubuntu groovy *
Aptdaemon Ubuntu trusty *
Aptdaemon Ubuntu xenial *

Potential Mitigations

  • Ensure that error messages only contain minimal details that are useful to the intended audience and no one else. The messages need to strike the balance between being too cryptic (which can confuse users) or being too detailed (which may reveal more than intended). The messages should not reveal the methods that were used to determine the error. Attackers can use detailed information to refine or optimize their original attack, thereby increasing their chances of success.
  • If errors must be captured in some detail, record them in log messages, but consider what could occur if the log messages can be viewed by attackers. Highly sensitive information such as passwords should never be saved to log files.
  • Avoid inconsistent messaging that might accidentally tip off an attacker about internal state, such as whether a user account exists or not.

References