Bug 2224951 (CVE-2023-4001)

Summary: CVE-2023-4001 grub2: bypass the GRUB password protection feature
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: Sandipan Roy <saroy>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Nobody <nobody>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: jaredz, mlewando, nfrayer, pjanda, pjones, pkotvan, raravind, rharwood, security-response-team, trathi, tsorense
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
An authentication bypass flaw was found in GRUB due to the way that GRUB uses the UUID of a device to search for the configuration file that contains the password hash for the GRUB password protection feature. An attacker capable of attaching an external drive such as a USB stick containing a file system with a duplicate UUID (the same as in the "/boot/" file system) can bypass the GRUB password protection feature on UEFI systems, which enumerate removable drives before non-removable ones. This issue was introduced in a downstream patch in Red Hat's version of grub2 and does not affect the upstream package.
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 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: 2224953, 2224952, 2258096    
Bug Blocks: 2224954    

Description Sandipan Roy 2023-07-24 03:28:26 UTC
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2223437

The "/boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg" configuration file allows an unprivileged user with physical access to a computer to bypass the GRUB password protection feature on many (but not all) UEFI-based systems.

Comment 4 Zack Miele 2024-01-12 16:10:26 UTC
Created grub2 tracking bugs for this issue:

Affects: fedora-all [bug 2258096]

Comment 5 Marta Lewandowska 2024-01-15 19:08:01 UTC
Please add to the doc text that users should remove the stub grub.cfg in their ESP:
# rm /boot/efi/EFI/redhat/grub.cfg
before they do the update, so that it is regenerated with the correct search flags during the update.

Comment 6 errata-xmlrpc 2024-01-24 15:26:23 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0 Extended Update Support

Via RHSA-2024:0437 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0437

Comment 7 errata-xmlrpc 2024-01-24 16:31:13 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

Via RHSA-2024:0468 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0468

Comment 8 errata-xmlrpc 2024-01-24 16:40:27 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Extended Update Support

Via RHSA-2024:0456 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0456