Vulnerabilities > CVE-2024-45312 - Injection vulnerability in Overleaf
Summary
Overleaf is a web-based collaborative LaTeX editor. Overleaf Community Edition and Server Pro prior to version 5.0.7 (or 4.2.7 for the 4.x series) contain a vulnerability that allows an arbitrary language parameter in client spelling requests to be passed to the `aspell` executable running on the server. This causes `aspell` to attempt to load a dictionary file with an arbitrary filename. File access is limited to the scope of the overleaf server. The problem is patched in versions 5.0.7 and 4.2.7. Previous versions can be upgraded using the Overleaf toolkit `bin/upgrade` command. Users unable to upgrade may block POST requests to `/spelling/check` via a Web Application Firewall will prevent access to the vulnerable spell check feature. However, upgrading is advised.
Vulnerable Configurations
| Part | Description | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Application | 2 |
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
- Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables This attack pattern involves causing a buffer overflow through manipulation of environment variables. Once the attacker finds that they can modify an environment variable, they may try to overflow associated buffers. This attack leverages implicit trust often placed in environment variables.
- Server Side Include (SSI) Injection An attacker can use Server Side Include (SSI) Injection to send code to a web application that then gets executed by the web server. Doing so enables the attacker to achieve similar results to Cross Site Scripting, viz., arbitrary code execution and information disclosure, albeit on a more limited scale, since the SSI directives are nowhere near as powerful as a full-fledged scripting language. Nonetheless, the attacker can conveniently gain access to sensitive files, such as password files, and execute shell commands.
- Cross Site Scripting through Log Files An attacker may leverage a system weakness where logs are susceptible to log injection to insert scripts into the system's logs. If these logs are later viewed by an administrator through a thin administrative interface and the log data is not properly HTML encoded before being written to the page, the attackers' scripts stored in the log will be executed in the administrative interface with potentially serious consequences. This attack pattern is really a combination of two other attack patterns: log injection and stored cross site scripting.
- Command Line Execution through SQL Injection An attacker uses standard SQL injection methods to inject data into the command line for execution. This could be done directly through misuse of directives such as MSSQL_xp_cmdshell or indirectly through injection of data into the database that would be interpreted as shell commands. Sometime later, an unscrupulous backend application (or could be part of the functionality of the same application) fetches the injected data stored in the database and uses this data as command line arguments without performing proper validation. The malicious data escapes that data plane by spawning new commands to be executed on the host.
- Subverting Environment Variable Values The attacker directly or indirectly modifies environment variables used by or controlling the target software. The attacker's goal is to cause the target software to deviate from its expected operation in a manner that benefits the attacker.