Overview
CVE-2024-46992 is a critical vulnerability in Electron, a popular open-source framework for developing cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. This vulnerability allows an attacker to bypass ASAR Integrity checks, potentially leading to system compromise or data leakage. This vulnerability only affects applications running on Windows and with specific fuses enabled, marking it as a particularly targeted yet impactful threat.
The severity of this issue lies in its ability to compromise systems and leak sensitive data, making it a significant threat to any organization that uses Electron-based applications within its IT infrastructure. It’s essential to understand the nature of this vulnerability, its potential impact, and the mitigation measures to counter it effectively.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2024-46992
Severity: High (7.8 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Local filesystem
Privileges Required: Write access to filesystem
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Electron | 30.0.0-alpha.1 to before 30.0.5
Electron | 31.0.0-alpha.1 to before 31.0.0-beta.1
How the Exploit Works
An attacker who has write access to the local filesystem can exploit this vulnerability by modifying files within the .app bundle. The vulnerability arises from a flaw in the Electron’s checks for ASAR Integrity, which can be bypassed if the embeddedAsarIntegrityValidation and onlyLoadAppFromAsar fuses are enabled. This allows an attacker to modify the application files and potentially compromise the system or leak data.
Conceptual Example Code
Given this vulnerability’s nature, a direct code example isn’t applicable. However, the exploitation would conceptually involve an attacker having write access to the filesystem and then modifying the .app bundle files. This could look something like:
cd /path/to/electron/app/
echo 'malicious code' >> somefile.asarIn the above pseudocode, an attacker with write access to the filesystem is appending malicious code to a file within the .app bundle, thereby exploiting the integrity bypass vulnerability.
Mitigation Guidance
To mitigate this vulnerability, apply the vendor-provided patch that has been released in versions 30.0.5 and 31.0.0-beta.1 of Electron. In cases where immediate patching is not feasible, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation measure. However, these are not full-proof solutions, and applying the vendor patch at the earliest is strongly recommended to secure your systems effectively.