Netdata is an open source observability tool. In affected versions the ndsudo tool shipped with affected versions of the Netdata Agent allows an attacker to run arbitrary programs with root permissions. The ndsudo tool is packaged as a root-owned executable with the SUID bit set. It only runs a restricted set of external commands, but its search paths are supplied by the PATH environment variable. This allows an attacker to control where ndsudo looks for these commands, which may be a path the attacker has write access to. This may lead to local privilege escalation. This vulnerability has been addressed in versions 1.45.3 and 1.45.2-169. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
The product searches for critical resources using an externally-supplied search path that can point to resources that are not under the product’s direct control.
This might allow attackers to execute their own programs, access unauthorized data files, or modify configuration in unexpected ways. If the product uses a search path to locate critical resources such as programs, then an attacker could modify that search path to point to a malicious program, which the targeted product would then execute. The problem extends to any type of critical resource that the product trusts. Some of the most common variants of untrusted search path are: