GHSA-3r3g-g73x-g593

    Dashboard / Vulnerabilities / GHSA-3r3g-g73x-g593

    GHSA-3r3g-g73x-g593

    Published: 12 Oct 2021Last Modified: 10 Sept 2026

    Summary: coreos-installer improperly verifies GPG signature when decompressing gzipped artifact

    Details: ### Impact coreos-installer fails to correctly verify GPG signatures when decompressing gzip-compressed artifacts. This allows bypass of signature verification in cases where coreos-installer decompresses a downloaded OS image, allowing an attacker who can modify the OS image to compromise a newly-installed system. Default installations from ISO or PXE media in Fedora CoreOS, RHEL CoreOS, and RHEL for Edge are **not** affected, as coreos-installer installs from an OS image shipped as part of the install media. These flows are affected: 1. Installing with `--image-file`, `--image-url`, or `coreos.inst.image_url`. For example, if a user has a local mirror of installation images, an attacker could replace an image with a gzip-compressed alternative (even if the file extension is `.xz`). The result: ``` $ coreos-installer install --image-url http://localhost:8080/image.xz /dev/loop0 Downloading image from http://localhost:8080/image.xz Downloading signature from http://localhost:8080/image.xz.sig > Read disk 749.9 MiB/749.9 MiB (100%) gpg: Signature made Mon 20 Sep 2021 02:41:50 PM EDT gpg: using RSA key 8C5BA6990BDB26E19F2A1A801161AE6945719A39 gpg: BAD signature from "Fedora (34) <[email protected]>" [ultimate] Install complete. ``` Notice that GPG reports a bad signature, but coreos-installer continues anyway. Automation that relies on coreos-installer's exit status will not notice either. 2. `coreos-installer download --decompress --image-url`: ``` $ coreos-installer download --decompress --image-url http://localhost:8080/image.xz > Read disk 749.9 MiB/749.9 MiB (100%) gpg: Signature made Mon 20 Sep 2021 02:41:50 PM EDT gpg: using RSA key 8C5BA6990BDB26E19F2A1A801161AE6945719A39 gpg: BAD signature from "Fedora (34) <[email protected]>" [ultimate] ./image ``` Again, coreos-installer reports success. 3. Installing with default parameters, when **not** installing from the image built into live ISO or PXE media, if the hosting service is compromised or if an active attacker gains control of the HTTPS response. 4. `coreos-installer download --decompress` if the hosting service is compromised or if an active attacker gains control of the HTTPS response. ### Patches The vulnerability is [fixed](https://github.com/coreos/coreos-installer/pull/659) in coreos-installer 0.10.1. ### Workarounds For `coreos-installer download`, do not use the `-d` or `--decompress` options. For `coreos-installer install`, manually inspect the stderr output. If `BAD signature` appears, do not boot from the target disk. Note, however, that some OS services may have already accessed data on the compromised disk. ### References For more information, see [PR 655](https://github.com/coreos/coreos-installer/pull/655). ### For more information If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, [open an issue in coreos-installer](https://github.com/coreos/coreos-installer/issues/new/choose) or email the CoreOS [development mailing list](https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/).

    Affected packages

    Package

    Name: coreos-installer

    Purl: pkg:cargo/coreos-installer

    Affected ranges

    Type: SEMVER

    Events:

    Introduced- 0
    Fixed -0.10.1

    Affected versions

    Common Vulnerability Scoring System

    Attack Vector
    Network
    Adjacent
    Local
    Physical
    Privileges Required
    None
    Low
    High
    User Interaction
    None
    Required
    Scope
    Unchanged
    Changed
    Confidentiality
    None
    Low
    High
    Integrity
    None
    Low
    High
    Availability
    None
    Low
    High
    GHSA-3r3g-g73x-g593 | CVE-DB