GHSA-pmfr-63c2-jr5c

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    GHSA-pmfr-63c2-jr5c

    Published: 20 Dec 2021Last Modified: 8 Jul 2026

    Summary: Execution Control List (ECL) Is Insecure in Singularity

    Details: ### Impact The Singularity Execution Control List (ECL) allows system administrators to set up a policy that defines rules about what signature(s) must be (or must not be) present on a SIF container image for it to be permitted to run. In Singularity 3.x versions below 3.6.0, the following issues allow the ECL to be bypassed by a malicious user: * Image integrity is not validated when an ECL policy is enforced. * The fingerprint required by the ECL is compared against the signature object descriptor(s) in the SIF file, rather than to a cryptographically validated signature. Thus, it is trivial to craft an arbitrary payload which will be permitted to run, even if the attacker does not have access to the private key associated with the fingerprint(s) configured in the ECL. ### Patches These issues are addressed in Singularity 3.6.0. All users are advised to upgrade to 3.6.0. Note that Singularity 3.6.0 uses a new signature format that is necessarily incompatible with Singularity < 3.6.0 - e.g. Singularity 3.5.3 cannot verify containers signed by 3.6.0. Version 3.6.0 includes a `legacyinsecure` option that can be set to `legacyinsecure = true` in `ecl.toml` to allow the ECL to perform verification of the older, and insecure, legacy signatures for compatibility with existing containers. This does not guarantee that containers have not been modified since signing, due to other issues in the legacy signature format. The option should be used only to temporarily ease the transition to containers signed with the new 3.6.0 signature format. ### Workarounds This issue affects any installation of Singularity configured to use the Execution Control List (ECL) functionality. There is no workaround if ECL is required. ### For more information General questions about the impact of the advisory / changes made in the 3.6.0 release can be asked in the: * [Singularity Slack Channel](https://bit.ly/2m0g3lX) * [Singularity Mailing List](https://groups.google.com/a/lbl.gov/forum/??sdf%7Csort:date#!forum/singularity) Any sensitive security concerns should be directed to: [email protected] See our Security Policy here: https://sylabs.io/security-policy

    Affected packages

    Package

    Name: github.com/sylabs/singularity

    Purl: pkg:golang/github.com/sylabs/singularity

    Affected ranges

    Type: SEMVER

    Events:

    Introduced- 3.0.0
    Fixed -3.6.0

    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-pmfr-63c2-jr5c | CVE-DB