CVE-2021-3981

A flaw in grub2 was found where its configuration file, known as grub.cfg, is being created with the wrong permission set allowing non privileged users to read its content. This represents a low severity confidentiality issue, as those users can eventually read any encrypted passwords present in grub.cfg. This flaw affects grub2 2.06 and previous versions. This issue has been fixed in grub upstream but no version with the fix is currently released.

Weakness

During installation, installed file permissions are set to allow anyone to modify those files.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Compartmentalize the system to have “safe” areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area.
• Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/1.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/127.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/81.html

References

• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/01/15/3
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2024170
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/AI776L35DDYPCSAAJPJM3ZEQYSFZHBJX/
• https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202209-12