Vulnerabilities > CVE-2022-23653 - Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition vulnerability in Backblaze B2 Command Line Tool
Summary
B2 Command Line Tool is the official command line tool for the backblaze cloud storage service. Linux and Mac releases of the B2 command-line tool version 3.2.0 and below contain a key disclosure vulnerability that, in certain conditions, can be exploited by local attackers through a time-of-check-time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition. The command line tool saves API keys (and bucket name-to-id mapping) in a local database file (`$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/b2/account_info`, `~/.b2_account_info` or a user-defined path) when `b2 authorize-account` is first run. This happens regardless of whether a valid key is provided or not. When first created, the file is world readable and is (typically a few milliseconds) later altered to be private to the user. If the directory is readable by a local attacker and the user did not yet run `b2 authorize-account` then during the brief period between file creation and permission modification, a local attacker can race to open the file and maintain a handle to it. This allows the local attacker to read the contents after the file after the sensitive information has been saved to it. Users that have not yet run `b2 authorize-account` should upgrade to B2 Command-Line Tool v3.2.1 before running it. Users that have run `b2 authorize-account` are safe if at the time of the file creation no other local users had read access to the local configuration file. Users that have run `b2 authorize-account` where the designated path could be opened by another local user should upgrade to B2 Command-Line Tool v3.2.1 and remove the database and regenerate all application keys. Note that `b2 clear-account` does not remove the database file and it should not be used to ensure that all open handles to the file are invalidated. If B2 Command-Line Tool cannot be upgraded to v3.2.1 due to a dependency conflict, a binary release can be used instead. Alternatively a new version could be installed within a virtualenv, or the permissions can be changed to prevent local users from opening the database file.
Vulnerable Configurations
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
- Leveraging Race Conditions via Symbolic Links This attack leverages the use of symbolic links (Symlinks) in order to write to sensitive files. An attacker can create a Symlink link to a target file not otherwise accessible to her. When the privileged program tries to create a temporary file with the same name as the Symlink link, it will actually write to the target file pointed to by the attackers' Symlink link. If the attacker can insert malicious content in the temporary file she will be writing to the sensitive file by using the Symlink. The race occurs because the system checks if the temporary file exists, then creates the file. The attacker would typically create the Symlink during the interval between the check and the creation of the temporary file.
- Leveraging Time-of-Check and Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) Race Conditions This attack targets a race condition occurring between the time of check (state) for a resource and the time of use of a resource. The typical example is the file access. The attacker can leverage a file access race condition by "running the race", meaning that he would modify the resource between the first time the target program accesses the file and the time the target program uses the file. During that period of time, the attacker could do something such as replace the file and cause an escalation of privilege.