Quantum Secular Labs / Blog / Advisories

CVE-2017-20166: Ecto Project: Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions

CVE-2017-20166 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 and affects Ecto Project. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication, without any user interaction. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available.

Vulnerability description

Ecto 2.2.0 lacks a certain protection mechanism associated with the interaction between is_nil and raise.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.1 9.8: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

• Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
• Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
• Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
• User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
• Scope: Unchanged. Impact stays within the vulnerable component.
• Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
• Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
• Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Underlying weakness

CWE-754: Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions

The product does not check or incorrectly checks for unusual or exceptional conditions that are not expected to occur frequently during day to day operation of the product.

Affected products

• Ecto Project: 2.2.0

References

• https://github.com/elixir-ecto/ecto/commit/db55b0cba6525c24ebddc88ef9ae0c1c00620250
• https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-2xxx-fhc8-9qvq
• https://github.com/elixir-ecto/ecto/pull/2125
• https://groups.google.com/forum/#%21topic/elixir-ecto/0m4NPfg_MMU