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OpenAdvisories
High · 7.3 CVE-2021-21261 EUVD-2021-8642

Flatpak sandbox escape via spawn portal

Published Jan 14, 2021 · Updated Aug 3, 2024 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

Flatpak is a system for building, distributing, and running sandboxed desktop applications on Linux. A bug was discovered in the `flatpak-portal` service that can allow sandboxed applications to execute arbitrary code on the host system (a sandbox escape). This sandbox-escape bug is present in versions from 0.11.4 and before fixed versions 1.8.5 and 1.10.0. The Flatpak portal D-Bus service (`flatpak-portal`, also known by its D-Bus service name `org.freedesktop.portal.Flatpak`) allows apps in a Flatpak sandbox to launch their own subprocesses in a new sandbox instance, either with the same security settings as the caller or with more restrictive security settings. For example, this is used in Flatpak-packaged web browsers such as Chromium to launch subprocesses that will process untrusted web content, and give those subprocesses a more restrictive sandbox than the browser itself. In vulnerable versions, the Flatpak portal service passes caller-specified environment variables to non-sandboxed processes on the host system, and in particular to the `flatpak run` command that is used to launch the new sandbox instance. A malicious or compromised Flatpak app could set environment variables that are trusted by the `flatpak run` command, and use them to execute arbitrary code that is not in a sandbox. As a workaround, this vulnerability can be mitigated by preventing the `flatpak-portal` service from starting, but that mitigation will prevent many Flatpak apps from working correctly. This is fixed in versions 1.8.5 and 1.10.0.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
flatpak flatpak >= 0.11.4, < 1.8.5, >= 1.9.0, < 1.10.0 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 flatpak 1.8.5-1 —
Debian 13 flatpak 1.8.5-1 —
Debian 12 flatpak 1.8.5-1 —
Debian 10 flatpak 1.2.5-0+deb10u2 DSA-4830-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS flatpak 1.6.5-0ubuntu0.2 USN-4721-1
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS flatpak 1.0.9-0ubuntu0.2 USN-4721-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
RHEL 8 flatpak +3 1.6.2-5.el8_3 RHSA-2021:0304
RHEL 7 flatpak +2 1.0.9-10.el7_9 RHSA-2021:0411
RHEL 7 flatpak-builder 1.0.0-10.el7_9 RHSA-2021:0411
Show 2 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
RHEL 8.2 EUS flatpak +3 1.6.2-4.el8_2 RHSA-2021:0307
RHEL 8.1 EUS flatpak +1 1.0.9-3.el8_1 RHSA-2021:0306
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 15 SP2 flatpak 1.10.2-4.6.1 SUSE-SU-2021:1094-1
SLES 15 SP2 libostree 2020.8-3.3.2 SUSE-SU-2021:1094-1
SLES 15 SP2 xdg-desktop-portal 1.8.0-5.3.2 SUSE-SU-2021:1094-1
SLES 15 SP2 xdg-desktop-portal-gtk 1.8.0-3.3.1 SUSE-SU-2021:1094-1
SLES 15 SP1 flatpak 1.2.3-150100.4.5.2 SUSE-SU-2022:3284-1, SUSE-SU-2022:2990-1
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES for SAP 15 SP1 flatpak 1.2.3-150100.4.5.2 SUSE-SU-2022:3284-1, SUSE-SU-2022:2990-1
SLE HPC 15 SP1 flatpak 1.2.3-150100.4.5.2 SUSE-SU-2022:3284-1, SUSE-SU-2022:2990-1
SUSE Enterprise Storage 6 flatpak 1.2.3-150100.4.5.2 SUSE-SU-2022:3284-1, SUSE-SU-2022:2990-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed flatpak 1.11.3-1.2 openSUSE-SU-2024:10762-1
openSUSE Leap 15.2 flatpak 1.10.2-lp152.3.6.1 openSUSE-SU-2021:0520-1
openSUSE Leap 15.2 libostree 2020.8-lp152.2.3.1 openSUSE-SU-2021:0520-1
openSUSE Leap 15.2 xdg-desktop-portal 1.8.0-lp152.4.3.1 openSUSE-SU-2021:0520-1
openSUSE Leap 15.2 xdg-desktop-portal-gtk 1.8.0-lp152.2.3.1 openSUSE-SU-2021:0520-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Alpine v3.24 flatpak 1.10.1-r0 —
Alpine v3.23 flatpak 1.10.1-r0 —
Alpine v3.22 flatpak 1.10.1-r0 —
Alpine v3.21 flatpak 1.10.1-r0 —
Alpine v3.20 flatpak 1.10.1-r0 —
Show 7 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Alpine v3.19 flatpak 1.10.1-r0 —
Alpine v3.18 flatpak 1.10.1-r0 —
Alpine v3.17 flatpak 1.10.1-r0 —
Alpine v3.16 flatpak 1.10.1-r0 —
Alpine v3.15 flatpak 1.10.1-r0 —
Alpine v3.14 flatpak 1.10.1-r0 —
Alpine v3.13 flatpak 1.10.1-r0 —

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2 flatpak +2 1.0.9-10.amzn2 ALAS2-2021-1597
Amazon Linux 2 flatpak-builder 1.0.0-10.amzn2 ALAS2-2021-1597

Oracle Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Oracle Linux 8 flatpak +3 1.6.2-5.el8_3 ELSA-2021-0304
Oracle Linux 7 flatpak +2 1.0.9-10.el7_9 ELSA-2021-0411
Oracle Linux 7 flatpak-builder 1.0.0-10.el7_9 ELSA-2021-0411

Advisories 14

References