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Regular Expression Denial of Service in CairoSVG

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jan 6, 2021 in Kozea/CairoSVG • Updated Sep 13, 2024

Package

pip CairoSVG (pip)

Affected versions

< 2.5.1

Patched versions

2.5.1

Description

Doyensec Vulnerability Advisory

  • Regular Expression Denial of Service (REDoS) in cairosvg
  • Affected Product: CairoSVG v2.0.0+
  • Vendor: https://github.com/Kozea
  • Severity: Medium
  • Vulnerability Class: Denial of Service
  • Author(s): Ben Caller (Doyensec)

Summary

When processing SVG files, the python package CairoSVG uses two regular expressions which are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (REDoS).
If an attacker provides a malicious SVG, it can make cairosvg get stuck processing the file for a very long time.

Technical description

The vulnerable regular expressions are

https://github.com/Kozea/CairoSVG/blob/9c4a982b9a021280ad90e89707eacc1d114e4ac4/cairosvg/colors.py#L190-L191

The section between 'rgb(' and the final ')' contains multiple overlapping groups.

Since all three infinitely repeating groups accept spaces, a long string of spaces causes catastrophic backtracking when it is not followed by a closing parenthesis.

The complexity is cubic, so doubling the length of the malicious string of spaces makes processing take 8 times as long.

Reproduction steps

Create a malicious SVG of the form:

<svg width="1" height="1"><rect fill="rgb(                     ;"/></svg>

with the following code:

'<svg width="1" height="1"><rect fill="rgb(' + (' ' * 3456) + ';"/></svg>'

Note that there is no closing parenthesis before the semi-colon.

Run cairosvg e.g.:

cairosvg cairo-redos.svg -o x.png

and notice that it hangs at 100% CPU. Increasing the number of spaces increases the processing time with cubic complexity.

Remediation

Fix the regexes to avoid overlapping parts. Perhaps remove the [ \n\r\t]* groups from the regex, and use .strip() on the returned capture group.

Disclosure timeline

  • 2020-12-30: Vulnerability disclosed via email to CourtBouillon

References

@liZe liZe published to Kozea/CairoSVG Jan 6, 2021
Reviewed Jan 6, 2021
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jan 6, 2021
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Jan 6, 2021
Last updated Sep 13, 2024

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v4 base metrics

Exploitability Metrics
Attack Vector Network
Attack Complexity Low
Attack Requirements None
Privileges Required None
User interaction None
Vulnerable System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality None
Integrity None
Availability High
Subsequent System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality None
Integrity None
Availability None

CVSS v4 base metrics

Exploitability Metrics
Attack Vector: This metric reflects the context by which vulnerability exploitation is possible. This metric value (and consequently the resulting severity) will be larger the more remote (logically, and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerable system. The assumption is that the number of potential attackers for a vulnerability that could be exploited from across a network is larger than the number of potential attackers that could exploit a vulnerability requiring physical access to a device, and therefore warrants a greater severity.
Attack Complexity: This metric captures measurable actions that must be taken by the attacker to actively evade or circumvent existing built-in security-enhancing conditions in order to obtain a working exploit. These are conditions whose primary purpose is to increase security and/or increase exploit engineering complexity. A vulnerability exploitable without a target-specific variable has a lower complexity than a vulnerability that would require non-trivial customization. This metric is meant to capture security mechanisms utilized by the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: This metric captures the prerequisite deployment and execution conditions or variables of the vulnerable system that enable the attack. These differ from security-enhancing techniques/technologies (ref Attack Complexity) as the primary purpose of these conditions is not to explicitly mitigate attacks, but rather, emerge naturally as a consequence of the deployment and execution of the vulnerable system.
Privileges Required: This metric describes the level of privileges an attacker must possess prior to successfully exploiting the vulnerability. The method by which the attacker obtains privileged credentials prior to the attack (e.g., free trial accounts), is outside the scope of this metric. Generally, self-service provisioned accounts do not constitute a privilege requirement if the attacker can grant themselves privileges as part of the attack.
User interaction: This metric captures the requirement for a human user, other than the attacker, to participate in the successful compromise of the vulnerable system. This metric determines whether the vulnerability can be exploited solely at the will of the attacker, or whether a separate user (or user-initiated process) must participate in some manner.
Vulnerable System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality: This metric measures the impact to the confidentiality of the information managed by the VULNERABLE SYSTEM due to a successfully exploited vulnerability. Confidentiality refers to limiting information access and disclosure to only authorized users, as well as preventing access by, or disclosure to, unauthorized ones.
Integrity: This metric measures the impact to integrity of a successfully exploited vulnerability. Integrity refers to the trustworthiness and veracity of information. Integrity of the VULNERABLE SYSTEM is impacted when an attacker makes unauthorized modification of system data. Integrity is also impacted when a system user can repudiate critical actions taken in the context of the system (e.g. due to insufficient logging).
Availability: This metric measures the impact to the availability of the VULNERABLE SYSTEM resulting from a successfully exploited vulnerability. While the Confidentiality and Integrity impact metrics apply to the loss of confidentiality or integrity of data (e.g., information, files) used by the system, this metric refers to the loss of availability of the impacted system itself, such as a networked service (e.g., web, database, email). Since availability refers to the accessibility of information resources, attacks that consume network bandwidth, processor cycles, or disk space all impact the availability of a system.
Subsequent System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality: This metric measures the impact to the confidentiality of the information managed by the SUBSEQUENT SYSTEM due to a successfully exploited vulnerability. Confidentiality refers to limiting information access and disclosure to only authorized users, as well as preventing access by, or disclosure to, unauthorized ones.
Integrity: This metric measures the impact to integrity of a successfully exploited vulnerability. Integrity refers to the trustworthiness and veracity of information. Integrity of the SUBSEQUENT SYSTEM is impacted when an attacker makes unauthorized modification of system data. Integrity is also impacted when a system user can repudiate critical actions taken in the context of the system (e.g. due to insufficient logging).
Availability: This metric measures the impact to the availability of the SUBSEQUENT SYSTEM resulting from a successfully exploited vulnerability. While the Confidentiality and Integrity impact metrics apply to the loss of confidentiality or integrity of data (e.g., information, files) used by the system, this metric refers to the loss of availability of the impacted system itself, such as a networked service (e.g., web, database, email). Since availability refers to the accessibility of information resources, attacks that consume network bandwidth, processor cycles, or disk space all impact the availability of a system.
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P

EPSS score

0.134%
(50th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2021-21236

GHSA ID

GHSA-hq37-853p-g5cf

Source code

Credits

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