Bug 1131240 (CVE-2014-3514)

Summary: CVE-2014-3514 rubygem-activerecord: Strong Parameter bypass with create_with
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: Kurt Seifried <kseifried>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Red Hat Product Security <security-response-team>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact:
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: high    
Version: unspecifiedCC: abaron, aortega, apevec, ayoung, bdunne, bkabrda, bkearney, bleanhar, cbillett, ccoleman, chazlett, chrisw, dajohnso, dallan, dclarizi, dmcphers, gkotton, gmccullo, jdetiber, jfrey, jialiu, jkeck, jokerman, jorton, jprause, jrafanie, jrusnack, jstribny, jvlcek, katello-bugs, kseifried, lhh, lmeyer, lpeer, markmc, mastahnke, mburns, mmaslano, mmccomas, mmcgrath, mmorsi, mpovolny, mtasaka, obarenbo, rbryant, rhos-maint, sclewis, sseago, tomckay, vanmeeuwen+fedora, vondruch, xlecauch, yeylon
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: rubygem-activerecord 4.0.9, rubygem-activerecord 4.1.5 Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
It was discovered that Active Record's create_with method failed to properly check attributes passed to it. A remote attacker could possibly use this flaw to bypass the strong parameter protection and modify arbitrary model attributes via mass assignment if an application using Active Record called create_with with untrusted values.
 Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2014-08-27 14:47:37 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On: 1133530, 1133531, 1133622    
Bug Blocks: 1131241    
Attachments:
Description Flags
4-0-create_with.patch
none
4-1-create_with.patch none

Description Kurt Seifried 2014-08-18 18:45:17 UTC 
Rafael Mendonça França reports:

There is a vulnerability in the create_with method in Active Record. This
vulnerability has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2014-3514.

Versions Affected:  4.0.0 and All Later Versions.
Not affected:       Versions earlier than 4.0.0
Fixed Versions:     4.0.9 4.1.5

Impact
------
The create_with functionality in Active Record was implemented incorrectly
and completely bypasses the strong parameters protection.  Applications
which pass user-controlled values to create_with could allow attackers to
set arbitrary attributes on models.

All users running an affected release should either upgrade or use one of
the workarounds immediately.

Releases
--------
The 4.0.9 and 4.1.5 releases are available at the normal locations.

Workarounds
-----------
To avoid this vulnerability you will have to either remove all calls to
create_with, or carefully audit your codebase to ensure it sanitizes the
input first.  For example you should replace code like this:

  user.blog_posts.create_with(params[:blog_post]).create

with either:

  user.blog_posts.create(params[:blog_post])

or:

  user.blog_posts.create_with(params[:blog_post].permit(:title, :body,
:etc)).create


Patches
-------
To aid users who aren't able to upgrade immediately we have provided
patches for the two supported release series.  They are in git-am format
and consist of a single changeset.

* 4-1-create_with.patch - Patch for 4.1 series
* 4-0-create_with.patch - Patch for 4.0 series

Please note that only the 4.0.x and 4.1.x series receive regular security
updates at present.  Users of earlier unsupported releases are advised to
upgrade as soon as possible as we cannot guarantee the continued
availability of security fixes for earlier releases.

Credits
-------

Thanks to Stephen Touset of Square for reporting the vulnerability to us,
and to Jeff Jarmoc of Matasano and Charlie Somerville of GitHub for helping
verify the patches and advisories.
Comment 1 Kurt Seifried 2014-08-18 19:12:01 UTC 
Created attachment 928054 [details]
4-0-create_with.patch
Comment 2 Kurt Seifried 2014-08-18 19:12:25 UTC 
Created attachment 928055 [details]
4-1-create_with.patch
Comment 3 Kurt Seifried 2014-08-18 23:29:51 UTC 
Upgraded severity to high as this could allow authentication bypass and privilege escalation.
Comment 5 Tomas Hoger 2014-08-25 11:49:06 UTC 
Upstream advisory:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rubyonrails-security/M4chq5Sb540

Announcement of fixed versions 4.0.9 and 4.1.5:
http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2014/8/18/Rails_4_0_9_and_4_1_5_have_been_released/

Upstream commits (4.0 and 4.1 branches):
https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/d4d0018
https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/9456990
Comment 7 Kurt Seifried 2014-08-25 15:11:49 UTC 
Created rubygem-activerecord tracking bugs for this issue:

Affects: fedora-20 [bug 1133622]
Comment 8 Martin Prpič 2014-08-26 12:19:09 UTC 
IssueDescription:

It was discovered that Active Record's create_with method failed to properly check attributes passed to it. A remote attacker could possibly use this flaw to bypass the strong parameter protection and modify arbitrary model attributes via mass assignment if an application using Active Record called create_with with untrusted values.
Comment 9 errata-xmlrpc 2014-08-27 14:22:13 UTC 
This issue has been addressed in following products:

  Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4 EUS
  Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Via RHSA-2014:1102 https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-1102.html
Comment 10 Fedora Update System 2014-09-26 09:01:10 UTC 
rubygem-activerecord-4.0.0-5.fc20 has been pushed to the Fedora 20 stable repository.  If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.