Poetry Argument Injection vulnerability can lead to local Code Execution

Summary

Poetry is a dependency manager for Python. When handling dependencies that come from a Git repository instead of a registry, Poetry uses various commands, such as `git clone`. These commands are constructed using user input (e.g. the repository URL). When building the commands, Poetry correctly avoids Command Injection vulnerabilities by passing an array of arguments instead of a command string. However, there is the possibility that a user input starts with a dash (`-`) and is therefore treated as an optional argument instead of a positional one. This can lead to Code Execution because some of the commands have options that can be leveraged to run arbitrary executables. If a developer is exploited, the attacker could steal credentials or persist their access. If the exploit happens on a server, the attackers could use their access to attack other internal systems. Since this vulnerability requires a fair amount of user interaction, it is not as dangerous as a remotely exploitable one. However, it still puts developers at risk when dealing with untrusted files in a way they think is safe, because the exploit still works when the victim tries to make sure nothing can happen, e.g. by vetting any Git or Poetry config files that might be present in the directory. Versions 1.1.9 and 1.2.0b1 contain patches for this issue.

Timeline

1. Sep 7, 2022, 6:30 PM UTCCVE published
2. Apr 22, 2025, 3:42 PM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total

3. Apr 22, 2025, 5:23 PM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• python-poetry poetry

  fixed in 1.1.9

• poetryPyPI

  fixed in 1.1.9

References 4